The Enchanted Forest
by Kristen Riddle
Summary: A crossover between Star Wars and Pokemon, with a little of Princess Bride mixed in. It's long, I know, but it's funny. See if you can figure out the story's secret at the end. R & R please! Epilogue follows!
1. Orphanage Life

The Enchanted Forest ****

The Enchanted Forest

*Note* This story has no sign of a crossover yet, but it will once you get to about chapter eight. Read and review when you're done please, and see if you can figure out the secret of the story! 

~Kristen Riddle (with a little help writing and a** lot** of help playing from M. Skywalker)~

Chapter 1: Orphanage Life

The Jolly Kids Orphanage was a small building in the city. There were 30 inhabitants: 25 kids, a headmaster, a cook, and three guards. While the guards, cook and headmaster slept in comfortable rooms with heat, the kids slept in small 10-by-6 foot "stalls". The stalls were made up of wood paneling, and were so cold, that they might as well have been outside in winter. They were lined up side by side, in 6-by-2 rows. There were 12 stalls, with two kids in each, three in one, because one was little.

That little boy, three-year-old Ryan, woke up and looked around. His brother, Tim, age twelve, was asleep next to him, and their sister, Sarah, also twelve was on the other side of him. They were not twins, as many people would assume. Though they looked somewhat alike Tim was actually ten or eleven months older than his sister. They were both brown haired, except Tim's hair was short, and Sarah's was longer, shoulder length. 

Ryan got up and stretched, careful not to hit his sister or brother. He could hear his other blonde and bratty, sister, Alice, age fourteen, and her bratty best friend, Sonya, (who had long, dark brown hair) who was the same age, snoring up near his head. 

He stood up and pulled his hat off his head, showing his fine, brown hair. It was cold in the orphanage, so he quickly put it back on.

"Have a good night's sleep, Ryan?" asked Sarah's friend and Sonya's sister, Catherine (or Cathy, if you valued your life), from the stall next door. She was just waking up herself, and her brown hair was hanging all over the place.

"Yeah, wight!" said Ryan, walking carefully over Sarah to the wall where Cathy was standing. "If thewe is such a thing as good in this place!" He stepped backwards and fell on top of his sister, waking her with a scream. "Sowwy," said Ryan, as everyone in the orphanage woke and glared angrily at him. 

Tim woke up and began to converse with Turtle, Cathy's "twin" brother. Turtle was not really Cathy's brother. He was an Indian whose parents were killed about a year before Cathy's parents were killed. He had been drowning in the ocean when Cathy found him. She brought him back to her house and took care of him. When he was drowning, he was unconscious (that's why he couldn't swim), and he could not remember how he was knocked out or how his parents had died. That will remain a mystery. The reason he was a "twin" is because he was the same age as Cathy.

Turtle and Tim talked and were soon joined by Mike, their next-door (other side) neighbor. They had met Mike at the orphanage. He had come a few days after they did, and now, Tim announced, was the anniversary of his sixth month there. 

"Come on," said Sarah, interrupting the boys' conversation, "It's time to get ready for breakfast." They went to a corner of their 10-by-6 foot stall and got out their eating utensils, a bowl and a mug. The head of the orphanage appeared carrying two large vats of milk and two of rotten fish. 

The head of the orphanage (named Jerry Roman, but called, Mr. Whip, by the kids) was spooning out fish and milk for the kids. He spilled a lot on the floor, and later, you could see the rats coming out from under the floorboards to eat it. Tim, Ryan, Sarah, Cathy, Mike, Alice, Sonya and Turtle stood in line for their food. They were sure that their dogs at home had eaten much better then they were now. 

After breakfast, there was not much to be done except sit, talk, and be bored. But Tim was busy thinking. Thinking about escape.


	2. The Escape

Chapter 2: The Escape ****

Chapter 2: The Escape

"Hey, Tim!" Turtle asked when they were standing in the dinner line later that day. "Are you feeling okay? You haven't been paying much attention to me today."

"Huh? What?" asked Tim.

Turtle sighed. "I said, 'You haven't been paying much attention to me today.'"

"What makes you say so, besides just now?"

"Well, this afternoon, I asked you what your cousin's name was, and you said 'uh, huh.'"

"Oh, yeah. Well, I've been thinking…"

"About…?"

"I can't tell you right now. Later."

"Okay…."

Later, Cathy, Turtle, Tim, Sarah, Ryan, and Mike met at the corner of the stall they all shared. 

"The reason I called you here was to share my escape plan." Tim looked around to make sure no one else was listening. "You know that guard who always falls asleep?" Everyone nodded. "Next time he's on duty, we'll escape. We can crawl through the rat holes under the floorboards. When we get outside, we'll jump into Mr. Whip's car and drive to those vacant cabins by the woods. Got it?"

"Yeah, but, Tim, uh, you can't drive!" said Sarah, who looked out for her brother, even though he was older.

"We'll never know if you're right until I try," said Tim. "Anyway, try to save every drop of food you can spare. I have an old pot we can put fish in."

"Who's gonna tell your sisters?" asked Mike.

"Cathy, you can tell Sonya and I'll tell Alice," instructed Tim.

The next three days, they got ready to leave. They saved every scrap of food they could spare. At night, they practiced packing their things into spaces small enough to get through the rat holes. They even practiced scrunching themselves to fit through the holes.

On the night they decided to escape, the guard fell asleep as usual. They sneaked out of their stalls and quietly got their baskets to the floor (all except Alice and Sonya, who did it loudly). They crawled through the rat holes, pushing their belongings in front of them. 

At the edge on the tunnels, Sonya refused to get out. "My hair is so messy! I can't show myself looking like this!" Tim, Cathy, and Turtle ended up yanking her out of the hole by her tangled mess of hair. She screamed, attracting the attention of the guards at the door. They saw eight kids scurrying out of the rat hole. 

"Run!" Tim shouted. They made a mad dash for Mr. Whip's car. Tim ran over to it and tried all the doors. "Oh great! It never occurred to me that the car might be locked!" he said. Suddenly, he noticed the trunk was slightly ajar. He ran to the back of the car and pried open the trunk. He climbed in and pushed on the wall of the trunk until it opened into the back seats of the car. "Come on!" he shouted at the others. Everyone came running over and jumped into the trunk. They climbed into seats. 

"Where are Sonya and Alice?" Mike asked looking around. The girls, who refused to run, were walking slowly towards them. 

"Buckle up! We'll pick 'em up on the way out!" Tim pushed the gas pedal. The tires squealed as the car swung around, but it was too late. The girls were caught. Luckily, the guards were too preoccupied hushing the screaming teens to notice the other six getting away. They really couldn't care less if the kids escaped anyway.

Tim pulled down the driveway and up the road a while to the edge of the thick, uncharted, forest, that took up most of the planet. Here, two small cabins stood. Tim pulled the car up between the cabins, into the shadows. 

"We're home at last!" said Sarah. Little did they know this was just a temporary home. 


	3. Your Highness, Prince Lee

Chapter 3: Your Highness, Prince Lee ****

Chapter 3: Your Highness, Prince Lee

Cabin life was fairly easy for the kids. Tim, Sarah, and Ryan lived in the smaller cabin, and Cathy, Turtle, and Mike lived in the bigger one. They could use the trees around them to make furniture and get firewood. They all got jobs to buy food and other supplies. Cathy got a job as a teacher's aide. Tim and Turtle got jobs as grocery store clerks (which got them some discounts on groceries). Sarah was a nurse in a family clinic (this skill will come in handy later in the story). Mike was eleven, and too young to get a job, or so Cathy said. So, he stayed home and took care of Ryan. 

On this distant planet of Golda, there was a king named Lotharon. The king had two sons, Humperdink, and Lee (where he got these names nobody knows). Being born first, Humperdink was the favorite. But that didn't mean Lee was not treated well. He had anything he wanted and servants to do anything he wanted them to. 

When the king died, Humperdink was crowned king. He did not like his little brother, so during a parade on the streets near the cabins, King Humperdink "accidentally" pushed his brother off the platform and threw all his things after him. Lee rolled down the hill and into the trees.

Lee was not too badly hurt, but he had hit his head on a tree stump and was unconscious. If it were not for Cathy and Tim, though, he probably would have died. They were walking along the road after watching the king parade by. Suddenly, Tim spotted something glittering in the sun. 

"Hey, Cathy! See that shiny thing over there? What is it?" 

"I don't know. I'll go check." Cathy walked over to the glittering thing. It was a golden necklace, hanging in the branches. She looked under the tree. It was a boy. On his face was an old, yellow teddy bear, and on top of his right ankle, there was a small stool.

"Hey, Tim! Come look at this! There's a boy under this tree!"

Tim ran over to the tree. "What happened to him?"

"I don't know. He's hurt. Let's take him back to your cabin. Your sister's a doctor now."

Tim ran back to the cabins to get the car. They put the boy (and his things) in it. When they got back, Sarah took a look at him.

"Is he okay?" Tim asked.

"His right ankle is sprained and he has a big bump on his head, but he'll be okay."

"That's good," said Cathy. "I'll bring him over to my cabin for a while."

After a few hours, Prince Lee woke up. His head hurt badly and he did not recognize the place he was lying. "Where am I?" he asked.

"Oh, so, you finally woke up?" said Cathy.

"Hey! That's no way to treat me!" said Lee.

"And why not? It's not like you're royalty or something!" said Cathy.

"I am too! I'm Lee, prince of Golda."

"Uh, huh. If you're really Prince Lee, then I'm Cathy, queen of England."

Lee got down on one knee (with great difficulty since he had a sprained ankle). "Your majesty…"

Cathy laughed. "You really believed that?"

"Well I am prince of this planet, so you must be the queen of England."

"Gee, you never heard sarcasm before?"

"Sarcasm?"

"You're hopeless," said Cathy, walking out of the room.

Lee shrugged. He got out of bed and hopped on his good ankle over to the bookshelf. There was a book about royalty on it. Lee pulled the book off the shelf and opened it to the index. He looked for his name. He was sure he was a prince, but this girl didn't seem to think so. Cathy, her name was.

Lee found his name and flipped to the page indicated. He was mentioned as the son of King Lotharon and the brother of Prince Humperdink (the book was written before the king had died), but the only picture of him was taken when he was a baby. Not too helpful.

Lee wondered why Cathy had not known he was a prince by his clothes or crown. He looked down at his clothes. They were muddy and dirty, almost unrecognizable. But his crown. Surely, anyone would know a prince by his crown. He reached up for his crown, but it was gone!

"No wonder!" he sighed. He was about to hop out to look for his crown, but Cathy came back in. 

"Your ankle is sprained! You shouldn't be up and about, prince or not," Cathy scolded.

"I am a prince. My name is in this book of royalty," Lee said, holding up the book. 

"You must have hit your head harder than I thought!" said Cathy, taking the book from him and putting it back on the shelf. "Now, get back to bed." She ushered Lee to the bed.

"But what about my crown! It's missing! And my clothes are dirty!" Lee protested.

"Well, I'll get you some of Turtle's clothes to wear and wash your clothes, but when we found you, I didn't see the crown you _say_ you are missing. I'll look, though." (She wasn't really planning to.) She got a pair of clean clothes for Lee and brought them to him. After he was changed, she took his clothes outside to the stream and washed them.

"Whoa! He wasn't kidding when he said he was a prince!" Cathy said when Lee's clothes were clean. His clothes were red and blue, the royal colors, obviously custom made, and expensive; things only a prince could afford to wear. "I think I should go look under that tree for his crown."

She went back to her cabin to hang up the clothes. "So you believe me now?" asked Lee.

"Yeah. I'm going to look for your crown." Cathy left the cabin and walked back to the tree. Under it, she found the crown.

Cathy brought it back to Lee. "I guess we should take you back to the castle now," she said.

"No way!" Lee shouted. "My brother tried to get rid of me! I didn't just fall off the platform; he pushed me! And it's not the first time he tried to do it, either!"

"But don't you want to be king?"

"Of course I want to be king! Who doesn't? It's just that I don't care enough about it to risk my life by living in the castle."

Cathy thought for a while. "Hmm…. Well, I guess you can stay with us," she said, "but I'll have to ask everyone else, too."

Cathy talked with Tim, and they decided Lee could stay with them. It hadn't even been a week since they had left the orphanage, and they already had a new friend. He was the first, but he would not be the last. Though there were seven of them now, there would eventually be eleven.


	4. Your Highness, Prince Lee

Chapter 3: Your Highness, Prince Lee ****

Chapter 3: Your Highness, Prince Lee

Cabin life was fairly easy for the kids. Tim, Sarah, and Ryan lived in the smaller cabin, and Cathy, Turtle, and Mike lived in the bigger one. They could use the trees around them to make furniture and get firewood. They all got jobs to buy food and other supplies. Cathy got a job as a teacher's aide. Tim and Turtle got jobs as grocery store clerks (which got them some discounts on groceries). Sarah was a nurse in a family clinic (this skill will come in handy later in the story). Mike was eleven, and too young to get a job, or so Cathy said. So, he stayed home and took care of Ryan. 

On this distant planet of Golda, there was a king named Lotharon. The king had two sons, Humperdink, and Lee (where he got these names nobody knows). Being born first, Humperdink was the favorite. But that didn't mean Lee was not treated well. He had anything he wanted and servants to do anything he wanted them to. 

When the king died, Humperdink was crowned king. He did not like his little brother, so during a parade on the streets near the cabins, King Humperdink "accidentally" pushed his brother off the platform and threw all his things after him. Lee rolled down the hill and into the trees.

Lee was not too badly hurt, but he had hit his head on a tree stump and was unconscious. If it were not for Cathy and Tim, though, he probably would have died. They were walking along the road after watching the king parade by. Suddenly, Tim spotted something glittering in the sun. 

"Hey, Cathy! See that shiny thing over there? What is it?" 

"I don't know. I'll go check." Cathy walked over to the glittering thing. It was a golden necklace, hanging in the branches. She looked under the tree. It was a boy. On his face was an old, yellow teddy bear, and on top of his right ankle, there was a small stool.

"Hey, Tim! Come look at this! There's a boy under this tree!"

Tim ran over to the tree. "What happened to him?"

"I don't know. He's hurt. Let's take him back to your cabin. Your sister's a doctor now."

Tim ran back to the cabins to get the car. They put the boy (and his things) in it. When they got back, Sarah took a look at him.

"Is he okay?" Tim asked.

"His right ankle is sprained and he has a big bump on his head, but he'll be okay."

"That's good," said Cathy. "I'll bring him over to my cabin for a while."

After a few hours, Prince Lee woke up. His head hurt badly and he did not recognize the place he was lying. "Where am I?" he asked.

"Oh, so, you finally woke up?" said Cathy.

"Hey! That's no way to treat me!" said Lee.

"And why not? It's not like you're royalty or something!" said Cathy.

"I am too! I'm Lee, prince of Golda."

"Uh, huh. If you're really Prince Lee, then I'm Cathy, queen of England."

Lee got down on one knee (with great difficulty since he had a sprained ankle). "Your majesty…"

Cathy laughed. "You really believed that?"

"Well I am prince of this planet, so you must be the queen of England."

"Gee, you never heard sarcasm before?"

"Sarcasm?"

"You're hopeless," said Cathy, walking out of the room.

Lee shrugged. He got out of bed and hopped on his good ankle over to the bookshelf. There was a book about royalty on it. Lee pulled the book off the shelf and opened it to the index. He looked for his name. He was sure he was a prince, but this girl didn't seem to think so. Cathy, her name was.

Lee found his name and flipped to the page indicated. He was mentioned as the son of King Lotharon and the brother of Prince Humperdink (the book was written before the king had died), but the only picture of him was taken when he was a baby. Not too helpful.

Lee wondered why Cathy had not known he was a prince by his clothes or crown. He looked down at his clothes. They were muddy and dirty, almost unrecognizable. But his crown. Surely, anyone would know a prince by his crown. He reached up for his crown, but it was gone!

"No wonder!" he sighed. He was about to hop out to look for his crown, but Cathy came back in. 

"Your ankle is sprained! You shouldn't be up and about, prince or not," Cathy scolded.

"I am a prince. My name is in this book of royalty," Lee said, holding up the book. 

"You must have hit your head harder than I thought!" said Cathy, taking the book from him and putting it back on the shelf. "Now, get back to bed." She ushered Lee to the bed.

"But what about my crown! It's missing! And my clothes are dirty!" Lee protested.

"Well, I'll get you some of Turtle's clothes to wear and wash your clothes, but when we found you, I didn't see the crown you _say_ you are missing. I'll look, though." (She wasn't really planning to.) She got a pair of clean clothes for Lee and brought them to him. After he was changed, she took his clothes outside to the stream and washed them.

"Whoa! He wasn't kidding when he said he was a prince!" Cathy said when Lee's clothes were clean. His clothes were red and blue, the royal colors, obviously custom made, and expensive; things only a prince could afford to wear. "I think I should go look under that tree for his crown."

She went back to her cabin to hang up the clothes. "So you believe me now?" asked Lee.

"Yeah. I'm going to look for your crown." Cathy left the cabin and walked back to the tree. Under it, she found the crown.

Cathy brought it back to Lee. "I guess we should take you back to the castle now," she said.

"No way!" Lee shouted. "My brother tried to get rid of me! I didn't just fall off the platform; he pushed me! And it's not the first time he tried to do it, either!"

"But don't you want to be king?"

"Of course I want to be king! Who doesn't? It's just that I don't care enough about it to risk my life by living in the castle."

Cathy thought for a while. "Hmm…. Well, I guess you can stay with us," she said, "but I'll have to ask everyone else, too."

Cathy talked with Tim, and they decided Lee could stay with them. It hadn't even been a week since they had left the orphanage, and they already had a new friend. He was the first, but he would not be the last. Though there were seven of them now, there would eventually be eleven.


	5. The Mysterious Clearing

Chapter 4: The Mysterious Clearing ****

Chapter 4: The Mysterious Clearing

As the second week out of the orphanage approached, the sky around the cabins began to darken. One day, there was a huge thunderstorm. It rained so long and so hard, that Ryan was convinced the world had "turned upside-down" and all the oceans were pouring down on them. But of course, that wasn't true. 

The rain was still coming down the next day. There was not a dry piece of wood in the whole forest, or at least as far as Tim or Turtle would venture. There was no fire in the cabins, so it was pretty cold. Outside, the rain was starting to flood at a very fast rate. In just an hour, six inches had piled up outside. After a few minutes, it began streaming under the cabin doors. They all tried to stop it, but it was too fast. They moved everything up onto higher places in the cabins. 

Soon the rainwater was waist-deep. Lee was having a hard time getting around. It was hard enough for Cathy, with both ankles perfectly fine, but Lee could only use one ankle. The rain still came pouring down. 

In two hours, the house was almost filled with water. Everything in the house was soaked. They had no choice but to climb up on top of the roof. They swam around picking up objects and passing them up to the flat roofs. Magically, as soon as the last things were out of the house, the rain cleared up and it was sunny. 

Cathy, Turtle, Mike, and Lee's house could stand the water no longer. It exploded in a gush of water, wood, people, and supplies. Tim and Sarah reached down to grab Mike and Lee as they were swept by. Cathy and Turtle struggled to get to the roof of the cabin. They finally made it, but they had no supplies, except the ones Tim and Sarah had. "I hate water," said Turtle.

"I hope our house doesn't do that!" Tim said.

"Well then, we better got out of here!" Sarah said.

They pried off the roof of the house and it became their raft. Then they pushed the roof into the stream of water and flowed deep into the forest.

As they floated into the forest, Turtle picked up a big stick and steered the raft through the trees with it. By now, they had traveled miles into the forest. 

"We'll nevew get outta hewe!" Ryan cried.

"Well, maybe we can find some place in the forest to find shelter," Cathy reassured him.

"Look! There's a cave! Steer us over there, Turtle!" shouted Tim.

Mike coughed. He had swallowed a lot of water when his house exploded.

Turtle pushed the raft off a tree and steered over to the cave. They kept on going until suddenly the water was gone and the raft crashed down onto completely dry grass.

"Ow!"

"Hey!"

"Get off me!"

"Get your leg out of my eye!"

Tim stood up and brushed himself off. A foot away was a straight wall of water. Why wasn't it coming in? He walked over to the pile of bodies on the ground and stuck his hand out. His hand was wet. 

"This is so weird," said Sarah.

"I'm thiwsy," said Ryan. He saw a pond clear as crystal, on the other side of the clearing. He ran over to it, and took a big cupful in his hands. Before anyone could stop him, he drank it. "Yum! This tastes good! Come twy!" he called.

"Ryan! You shouldn't drink that! You don't know what kind of bacteria is in it!" scolded Sarah. 

"So what? It's good!" said Ryan, taking another cupful. "It can't be bacteriasized!" Sarah gave him a disapproving look.

They set to work on making a lean-to between a very large tree and the pond and waterfall. At night, it was very warm. This was just as well, as they had no blankets. All they did have were three mugs, three bowls, a pot, an empty milk bottle, two hats, two scarves and Lee's things: his teddy, his scarf, his hat, his crown and his stool. 

The next day, Cathy and Sarah woke at 5:30. It was a hot and sunny day. 

They looked around for something to eat. There were no fish in the stream. The ducks sitting by the lake would be hard to catch and prepare. No one liked mushrooms. 

"I'll go and look for some things to eat," said Cathy. She pushed a piece of their broken raft into the water, grabbed the big stick and was off. 

By the time Cathy came back, everyone knew the forest like the back of their hand. There was a large clearing with many different plants and trees around it. To the right of the lean-to, there was a huge evergreen tree. Next to that, there was a smaller evergreen tree. To the right of that was a wide-open space. On the other side, there was a small bush with pink flowers growing on it. There was a weird tree next to that. Then there was a huge rock. Connecting to that rock was a rock pile with a small crevice underneath it. There was a tree growing on the rock. A marsh plant grew between that and another huge rock. There was a small fallen log with some kind of shrub next to the rock. There were some sunflowers to the right of that, and another open space. After the open space was another small shrub, with some red and white mushrooms growing next to it. Then there was the pond, with rocks surrounding it, and the waterfall with trees growing all around. The clearing was an amazing site. 

Sarah was in the lean-to tending to Mike, who was getting worse. He had a bad cough and a worse cold. 

"I have some fish for us. I got enough to last us all day, because I don't know if our raft can last another fall," Cathy pointed to the splintered remains of the raft in the open space by the weird tree and the pink-flowered bush. Beside it was a pile of fish. 

Sarah came out from the lean-to. "Let's eat!" she said. She started to clean and cook the fish. 

While they were eating, some others were approaching the clearing.

"Hey, Alice! You steer bad! When is it my turn?" 

"Never! If it's hard for me, think how hard it would be to you, Sonya, you're stupid! You'd just make us crash into the trees."

Suddenly, the two girls crashed into the clearing. "Oh, no! Look who it is! It's our brothers and sisters!" screamed Alice. 

"Eww!" said Tim and Ryan.

"Let's get away from here! I'm not hanging around with these losers!" said Sonya, righting their boat and pushing it toward the edge of the water. Alice followed her. Soon they were out of sight. 

"See ya!" shouted Tim.

"Did you see that?" Sarah asked. "The water was frozen!"


	6. Bye, Bye, Mike

Chapter 6: Bye, Bye, Mike ****

Chapter 6: Bye, Bye, Mike

As the days progressed, Mike got worse. Tim, Sarah and Ryan were getting ready to move out of the lean-to into the cave near the marsh plant and the sunflowers. The bears had agreed to move to the other cave. 

They now had plenty of food. The animals sometimes hunted for them. They turned the open space between the trees into a food storage lean-to, and Cathy and Turtle were working on making their lean-to into a cabin. Lee wasn't helping at all. He refused to do any sort of work. Of course, Cathy was too nice to force him to do it, or reject his servant-type orders. So they dealt with it. 

Soon they decided to take Mike to the doctor, as Sarah could no longer care for him. And she decided everyone else should get check-ups. 

The water was gone outside. Tim and Turtle decided to go and try to find the car to bring Mike out of the forest. 

They were gone most of the day. Mike now had a fever. He was feeling awful. Sarah tried to put water on his forehead, but one thing about enchanted water was that it dried seconds after contact. Another thing about the enchanted water was that it perfectly cleaned whatever it touched. Mike's forehead was squeaky clean, but still as hot as ever. This wasn't helping him at all. 

Suddenly, they heard a car horn. "Lee, Ryan! Come on! We're going!" shouted Cathy, as she helped Mike get up and to the car. 

"Tim, step on it!" said Sarah. The car lurched forward and they sped out of the forest in twenty minutes. 

They were soon at a small clinic in a town called Gifek. They walked in, helped Mike in, and sat down. The doctor came almost immediately. 

"Hello! I am Dr. Howe. What seems to be the problem?" said a tall, gray-haired man in a doctor's robe. 

"Our friend is very sick, but we don't have any money to pay for this visit," Sarah started. 

"I see. Where are your parents?" the doctor asked.

"Uh…They're uh…" started Tim.

"Well nevermind that! If your friend is sick, I will help him, no charge."

Everyone gave a sigh of relief.

"Bring him here." The doctor motioned for them to bring Mike behind a door. It was a small room with only a bed and a counter. They helped Mike over to the bed. 

"I see," said the doctor. "Your friend has a very bad cold. I'm afraid he will have to stay the night here."

"Alright," said Cathy. "See you tomorrow, Mike."

"Bye," Mike said weakly.

They went back to the forest. No one talked too much. Everyone was thinking about Mike at the doctor's.

The next day, they went to see Mike. Tim drove the car the five miles to Gifek. They got out at Doctor Howe's office. 

"How's Mike, Doctor Howe?" asked Tim.

"Oh he's doing much better. But I'm afraid he won't be coming back with you today- or ever. You see, when you got uncomfortable when I mentioned your parents, I figured they were…deceased. Am I right?"

They all nodded.

"Thought so. Any ways, I have decided that I would like a son of my own to hand over my practice to. And last night, Mike was screaming- in his sleep- about parents and family. So I said, why don't I adopt him? He's a handful for you guys. I asked him and he said sure he'd love it but he'd have to ask you guys. He's sleeping right now, so I'll ask for him. So, what do you say?"

All the kids glanced at each other. Tim spoke, "Well, if that's what Mike wants, we want him to be happy. So, I guess our answer is yes. But can we see him before we go?"

"Oh, yes, certainly! I'll go wake him! He'll be so happy!" The doctor raced into the room to wake Mike. He came out, and motioned for them to enter. 

"Hi guys!" said Mike. He was sitting up in bed and he looked a lot better.

"So, Mike, you're getting adopted? We're gonna miss you," said Tim.

"Yeah!" shouted Ryan.

"Well, we'll see you 'round. Bye," said Turtle.

There was a chorus of "bye's" when they left. They walked back to the car and drove back to the forest in silence. 


	7. Babies Down the River

****

Chapter 7: Babies Down the River

The next day was lonely without Mike. The cabin was a little more spacious, and there was an extra mug and bowl. That afternoon, the kids sat around the pond, talking. Suddenly, there was a splash behind them. They turned around to see a small cradle. There was a baby inside!

"What the…?" said Tim, confused. He picked the baby up and out of the cradle. "That's weird. I suppose another thing in this forest is that you get a free baby when you move in!" He chuckled.

Snowy didn't think it was funny. "No. We've never had babies in the forest before."

Sarah picked up the cradle from the water. There was a blanket and a cradle-pad in it. "Whoever put the babies in the water wasn't trying to kill them." She picked up the pad. There was a note under it. It said:

Dear Mister or Miss,

We are very poor and cannot afford to keep our babies. The one in pink is Rachel, and the one in purple is Rebecca. Please take good care of them. Thank you so very much. We hope to someday reclaim them.

Sarah read the note aloud. It was not signed. 

"Oh no!" said Tim. "It says 'babies'. That can only mean one thing, there's more than one of them!"

"Oh no!" said Lee, who though Ryan was bad enough. 

"Well maybe it won't be so bad," said Turtle. "I mean, at least they can't talk!"

"I wish it could talk!" said Tim as the baby in his arms began to cry.

"I wike hew! She's cute!" said Ryan.

"Yeah, when she's not crying!" said Tim.

All of a sudden, another cradle came down the waterfall. A baby cried from within. Cathy picked up the baby and cradled it. "I wish we had some milk," she said. 

A huge, black dog walked into the forest. It came up to Tim and began to bark. 

"Blackie! Tim shouted. This was their old dog, Blackie, from before they lived in the orphanage. He scratched the dog behind the ears.

Four other dogs followed Blackie into the forest. They were Midnight, a black watchdog, Chestnut, a brown watchdog, Milky Way, a light brown dachshund, and Snickers, a dark brown dachshund. These were all Cathy's dogs. 

Then, they heard a bleat, like from a sheep or goat. A small white goat with brown spots walked into the forest. 

"There's your milk, Cathy!" said Tim. 

"Eww! I don't want to have to milk that thing!" said Cathy.

"You don't have much of a choice," said Snowy.

Cathy went over to the goat muttering something under her breath. 

Also newcomers in the forest that night, two horses wandered in. They were Candy and Brown Sugar, Sarah's and Cathy's horses from before they went into the orphanage. Candy was a white horse with brown spots. Brown Sugar was obviously the color of brown sugar. 

That night, Tim and Sarah decided to take Rachel, and Cathy and Turtle decided to take Rebecca. They set up the cradles in the cabins and put the babies to bed. They didn't know that the babies did not yet sleep through the night. 

At 3:00 am, Rebecca woke with a loud cry, waking Turtle, Lee and Cathy. Cathy got up and put some milk on the stove. She picked Rebecca up and walked around the room with her. By the time the milk was heated, Rebecca was asleep. "She'll be up again," said Cathy.

Sure enough, at 3:30, Rebecca was up again. Cathy fed her some milk and cradled her for a while, but she was tired. 

"I'll take over, Cathy," offered Turtle. Lee was asleep. Cathy handed Rebecca over to Turtle and went to bed. 

The next morning, Tim, Turtle, Sarah and Cathy were discussing the night before. "Rachel cried at 2:00 am. Then she wouldn't go to sleep for an hour," complained Sarah. "And Tim was no help at all."

"Hey! It isn't my fault, I'm a heavy sleeper!" cried Tim.

"If that's not the understatement of the year! Tim, you could sleep through an earthquake!" said Turtle.

They laughed. Rachel began to cry back in Tim and Sarah's cave. "I'll get her," said Tim. He got up and ran into the cave. 

"We have to find a better home for them. I mean, we don't want to be woken up at 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning. And twelve-year-olds are not suitable parents for infants," Cathy said.

"That's true. If no one claims them in two days, we'll take them to town," said Sarah. She got up and went to see how Tim was doing with Rachel.

By the next day, things were getting tense at Cathy, Turtle, and Lee's cabin. Lee still refused to do work, including tending to Rebecca. Usually, Cathy would be patient with him, but now she was getting no sleep and was irritable. 

In the morning, Cathy was trying to make breakfast and Rebecca began to cry. Turtle was out getting some firewood. 

"Lee can you give her this bottle?" asked Cathy. Lee refused. Cathy lost her cool. "You good-for-nothing prince! You can't even do a simple chore! You are so lazy! And so ungrateful! After all we do for you!"

Coming back from wood gathering, Turtle heard Cathy screaming at the top of her lungs. This was very rare. Cathy usually never screamed. He dropped the wood and ran inside.

"Cathy, calm down!" he exclaimed.

"No! I won't!"

"This isn't any way to treat a prince!" shouted Lee.

"You know what? I'm sick of you! 'This is no way to treat a prince!' I'm sick of your princey attitude. If you don't like it, just leave!" screamed Cathy.

"Fine! I will!" yelled Lee. He walked out the door and slammed it behind him.

"And take these with you!" shouted Cathy, throwing Lee's belongings out the door and slamming it again. 

Turtle flinched. "Do you have to slam the door?" he asked.

"Yes!"

"Don't you think you were a little hard on him. I mean, you haven't been getting much sleep around here lately. After all, he doesn't know any better," 

"He should have learned by now!" said Cathy, and picked up the now screaming baby herself. 

Outside, Lee was gathering his things. He didn't understand why Cathy was so mad. He didn't know how to cook or clean. He didn't know he was supposed to help around the house. Couldn't they understand he was trying to adapt to the new life as best he could? He sat down on his stool in the open space. Now where was he going to live? He didn't know how to make a house! 

He knocked on Sarah and Tim's door. Tim answered it. "What's up?" he asked.

"Cathy threw me out and…" started Lee.

"Well your not living here!" Tim shouted, about to slam the door in Lee's face.

"Wait!" said Lee. "I wasn't going to ask if I could live here. I was going to ask if you could help me build a house!"

"Oh," said Tim a little guiltily. "What kind of house?"

"A tent or lean-to," said Lee.

"Okay, I'll help, but you have to do most of the work."

They worked all afternoon constructing a lean-to for Lee. They put it in the other open space (the only one now). By the time it was dark, they were finished. Lee moved in for the night. It might be lonely, but at least he could actually sleep. 

The next morning, Cathy had to borrow something from Sarah because she had lost hers. Turtle was helping Lee fix the drafts in his lean-to. Tim was sitting by the fire. They all heard Rebecca scream from the cabin. 

"I'll take care of her," said Tim. He got up and ran across the forest to Cathy's and picked up Rebecca. "You made a poop," he said, pulling off her diaper. 

"Poop," Rebecca repeated.

"Oh darn! Now I've got you saying it!"

"Dawn!" said Rebecca. "Poop dawn, poop dawn!" She giggled.

"Oh great!" said Tim. 

He brought Rebecca over to play with Rachel. In no time, Rachel was saying it, too. "Poop dawn, poop dawn!"


	8. Don't Eat the Mushrooms

****

Chapter 8: Don't Eat the Mushrooms

"Poop dawn" was getting more annoying every day. They had been taking care of the babies for a week, and these were still the only words they knew. They had only been planning to keep the babies for two days, but no one wanted them to go to the orphanage. They had too many memories of being there, themselves. And everyone was very tired. The babies woke up two and three times a night.

Ryan was playing near the water with Rachel and Rebecca one morning. Sarah was watching from a few feet away. The water suddenly froze. Sarah looked around, expecting to see Alice and Sonya, but she did not. Instead, she saw three weird people dressed in cloaks. 

"I told you we were going the wrong way!" said a small boy with dirty blonde hair. He looked about nine years old. 

"I agree. I really don't think we're on Coresant," said a boy, who looked the same age as Sarah. 

"I don't know where we are!" said a man. 

"Why don't you ask them?" said the little boy, pointing at Sarah.

"Me?" asked Sarah.

"Yeah, you!" said the boy. 

"Anakin!" scolded the older boy. He turned to Sarah. "Sorry. Do you know where we are, miss?"

"You are on the planet, Golda, in a forest twenty miles from Gifek," explained Sarah.

"Golda. I'm not familiar with this planet," said the older boy. Rachel began to cry. Sarah went over and scooped her up. 

"Hmm…" said the man. He leaned over and whispered something to the older boy.

"Stop crying, Rachel! Tim says if you wake him up one more time, he's driving you straight to Gifek and dropping you off at the orphanage!" Sarah said. 

"This baby is very strong in The Force," said the man. 

"The Force?" said Sarah. 

"Yes. The mysterious energy that connects all living organisms," explained the man. 

"Yeah, whatever," said Sarah. 

"Come on, Anakin! We are going back to the ship to test this baby's midi-chlorian level," said the man. He began to walk out of the forest, but then he said, "Uh, Obi-Wan? Do you know the way back to the ship?" The older boy, Obi-Wan, went off with him and so did the younger boy, Anakin.

"That was strange!" said Sarah. She put Rachel back with Ryan and Rebecca, and began to read a book.

Obi-Wan, Anakin, and the other man came back later in the afternoon. 

"I knew this baby was strong in The Force!" said the man. 

"Yes, but Master Qui-Gon, I sense another," said Obi-Wan.

"Yes. Is there another baby here?" Qui-Gon asked Sarah. 

"Uh, yeah. Why?"

"As I said before, this baby is very strong in The Force. If there is another, we can train them both to be Jedi knights," explained Qui-Gon. 

"We would like to speak to the babies' parents," said Obi-Wan.

"They are orphans. I am responsible for them for the time being. What do you want?" Sarah put her book down and stood up. 

"We'd like to train them as Jedi knights. We will need to take them for several years, and they may never come back," said Qui-Gon. 

Sarah's eyes lit up. "Sure you can take the babies! We've been trying to find them a home!"

"At least they're not too old," Obi-Wan said quietly, eyeing Anakin. Sarah was the only one who heard. 

"So you really want them?" asked Sarah. 

"Yes," said Qui-Gon. 

"Okay," said Sarah. She gathered up the babies' things. "The one in pink is Rachel, and the one in purple is Rebecca," she explained. 

"Alright. We'll be going now. Come on, Anakin. Wait! I have a great idea! Obi-Wan, why don't you stay here for a while? They need a Jedi on this planet!" Qui-Gon said. 

Obi-Wan looked a little startled. "Alright," he said. "I'll stay." He didn't look too happy about it. 

"I want to stay, too!" said Anakin.

"No, you must come with me to Coresant," said Qui-Gon.

"I'm hungry!" shouted Anakin.

"I'm sorry, but I don't have anything for you to eat! Now come on!"

"I'll find something myself!" Anakin scanned the area. His eyes locked on the mushrooms. "Yum! Mushrooms!" He ran over to the mushrooms. 

"Don't eat those," said Turtle, coming out of the cabin.

"Why not? I don't have to listen to you! You're not the boss of me!"

"Alright, but I warned you…"

Anakin took a huge bite of mushroom. Nothing happened. Then suddenly, the huge tree pulled its roots out of the ground and leaped across the forest, landing on Anakin. He was catapulted out of the forest towards the ship.

"So that's what happens when you eat a mushroom! Cool!" cried Turtle. He went back inside.

Qui-Gon sighed, picked up the babies and their things, and ran out of the forest to look for Anakin.

It was by now 6:00. Sarah and Ryan went inside. Obi-Wan was alone in the forest. He didn't have anything to eat and he was hungry. He also didn't have any place to stay for the night.

Cathy came outside after dinner. "And you would be…?"

"Obi-Wan."

"Why didn't you leave with the others?"

"I'm supposed to stay here."

"Where are you staying tonight?"

"I'm not sure. It's probably warm enough to sleep out here."

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"I do."

"Well, if you insist, but at least get a blanket." Cathy went inside, got a blanket, and gave it to Obi-Wan. "Good night," she said.

"Good night." Obi-Wan walked over to the rock over the deer, spread out his blanket, and went to sleep. 


	9. The First Winter

****

Chapter 9: The First Winter

Obi-Wan woke up in the middle of the night. It was freezing (literally-it was 30ºF). Thinking it might be warmer, he walked over to the cabin. It was. 

When Cathy woke up and went outside the next morning, she found Obi-Wan sleeping against the house.

"Uh, what are you doing?" asked Cathy.

"Well, I was sleeping, but now, I'm just sitting here," answered Obi-Wan.

"It's cold out. You want to come inside?" asked Cathy.

"Yes. I think I'm already sick, but I don't want to get any sicker. But I don't want to get anyone else sick."

"Come inside." Cathy said. Obi-Wan went inside and sat by the fire. Turtle was still asleep.

Cathy went out to the food storage and brought back hot chocolate mix, water, three biscuits and her four dogs. "I don't know why it's so cold out," she said. "It's usually hot, even at night."

It was now 6:00. "Turtle should be waking up soon," said Cathy.

"Turtle? What kind of a name is Turtle?" asked Obi-Wan.

"Well, what kind of a name is Obi-Wan?"

"Good point."

"Who's calling me?" asked Turtle, waking up groggily.

"No one. He just says your name is funny," explained Cathy.

"Who is he any ways?" asked Turtle.

"I'm Obi-Wan."

"What kind of a name is Obi-Wan?" Turtle started to laugh.

Cathy put the water over the fire and added some hot chocolate mix to it.

Turtle got up and went to the door. "It's cold out there," said Obi-Wan.

Turtle opened the door. "Whoa! It _is_ cold out there!" he said. He came back inside and shut the door. He opened the basket that was his bed and took out his hat. He put it on his head and went outside to Tim's cave.

He knocked on the door of the cave. Sarah opened it and was hit by a gust of very cold air.

"Brrrr. Is it cold out there, Turtle?"

"Take a wild guess," said Turtle. He sat down by the fire and removed his hat.

"Um, yes?"

"Ding, ding, ding!"

Sarah closed the door.

"Do you know why it's so cold?" asked Turtle.

"No. Ask Snowy."

Turtle put his hat back on and went to find the owl. He found her, asleep in the weird tree.

"Uh, good morning, Snowy," said Turtle.

Snowy woke up. "What do you want?

"Why is it so cold?"

"Uh, because it's winter."

"Winter? I thought you said it was always warm here."

"Well then, I lied. We have winter and a storm and flood lasting for a week or two every once and a while. Go ask someone else and stop bothering me."

"Who can I ask?"

"Ask Moonglow. Oh wait. She left. Ask Froggy."

"Can I ask you one more question before I go?"

"You just did. Bye."

"Can I ask another question?"

"Oh, fine. What is it?"

"Why does Moonglow leave?"

"Because she doesn't want to freeze her butt off!"

"Couldn't she just leave once it got out of hand?"

"No! I hate newcomers! They never know anything! You can't leave during a winter. You can sometimes leave in a storm, but rarely."

"Okay. Thanks." Turtle went back to the cabin and reported the news to Cathy and Obi-Wan. Then he went to Sarah's and Lee's to tell them.

Soon after, the winds began to blow, and snow began to fall. Cathy and Turtle were not sure if their house would hold in the wind, or if the roof would hold under the weight of the snow, so they took all their things and moved over to Sarah and Tim's cave. It was a good thing they did, because soon, the roof of the cabin did collapse. They would not know about this until later. Lee came over, too.

At lunch that day, Turtle and Tim went out to the food storage and brought in all the food, so that they would not have to go there every meal. They stored the food in pots, pans, and baskets.

The cave was not crowded, though there was a shortage of beds when it came time for sleeping. Lee had no bed in his lean-to, and Obi-Wan had no bed either. 

Obi-Wan was made a bed of four chairs, and Lee was forced to sleep on the floor, because no one was willing to sacrifice a bed for him.

The cave did not have a lot of furniture. Sarah and Ryan had wooden beds and mattresses. Tim had a very thick mattress on the floor, and he liked it. There was a chest that looked more like a bunny hutch than a cupboard. They had a table and three chairs with a lantern hanging over it. The fire and grate were next to the bench. All the furniture was hand-made by them. 

At night, everyone was restless. The wind howled outside the door. Blackie and the other dogs took turns taking watch, but there was no point, since no one can enter the forest during winter.

The next morning, Cathy and Sarah woke up at 5:30, as usual. They put some water on the fire and made hot chocolate and oatmeal. 

Lee woke up. He was stiff from sleeping on the floor. "Do you have to make so much noise?"

"Fine, we won't give you any breakfast! You can make it yourself!" said Sarah.

Lee grumbled and got up to make his breakfast. "And that dinner last night? That was nasty!"

"Fine then! Today, _you_ make dinner!" said Cathy, who had made the dinner. She and Sarah went as far away from Lee as they could get. Lee left and went to sit in his lean-to, even though it was freezing in there.

When everyone was up, they all sat around and talked. Cathy, Sarah, and Obi-Wan were talking by the fire. Ryan and Tim were "wrestling" (it was more like Ryan jumping on Tim, and Tim throwing him off). Turtle was laughing his head off at them wrestling. 

Someone, either Cathy or Sarah, said "Obi-Wan" and Ryan heard, though not too well. He was tired of wrestling now, so he went over to where his sister was sitting. 

"Hi, Sawah! Hi, Cathy! Hi…" Ryan paused and concentrated. "Oh! I wemebew! Hi, Ofi-Wan!" 

Ben ignored this, but it got worse. Every time Ryan would walk by, he would say, "Hi, Ofi-Wan!" The eagle came over that afternoon, and this was even worse.

"Hey, biwdy!" said Ryan. "Have you met Ofi-Wan?"

"Ofi-Wan? I though it was Robi-Wan," said the eagle.

"It's Ben," said Obi-Wan, uh, Ben. Now he thought Ryan was doing it just because he liked saying it.

Ryan continued to say it, but under his breath. When he said it out loud, it wasn't too often. He knew he would get in trouble if he said it too often.

The day was otherwise boring. Tim went out to Lee's to try to convince him to come back inside. He wouldn't come back until dinner, when Cathy and Sarah reminded him that he was making it. 

"What's easy to make?" asked Lee.

"Parrot," said Sarah. She felt like being mean to him after all he had done to her this morning. 

So Lee went to cook the parrot. First, he had to pluck it and put spices on it. He stuck it in the fire and let it cook. He was hungry, so he only let it cook for fifteen minutes. It was still almost raw when he took it out. He cut it up and put it in the mugs with some milk and handed it out.

Everyone began eating except Lee and Ben. Lee took one bite of his parrot and gagged. It tasted disgusting! He spat it out onto the floor. He couldn't complain though, because he'd made it. 

Ben didn't eat his parrot either. First of all, it tasted like Bantha meat (which if you've ever had, know how bad it tastes). Second, he was sick and didn't have much of an appetite. Lastly, he "sensed" something wrong with it. So, he politely refused.

By the time everyone went to bed, they were all sick to their stomachs. Lee wasn't sick, but you could hardly rely on Lee to help when you are sick.

So winter passed by. No one was really up to doing anything (not that there was anything to do), so basically, everyone sat around or slept. No one had much of an appetite, except Lee, who ate a ton of biscuits because that was the only thing he could make. He was bored, too. 

Soon, winter was over. It was a short winter, only three days. "We'll have a very bad storm," said Snowy, but after a few days, there was still not a cloud in sight. 

Three days after the end of winter, Qui-Gon came back. Ben, who was perfectly healthy now, was outside. 

"Oh, Obi-Wan! I've been looking for you!" said Qui-Gon.

"Uh, it's Ben here. What do you need me for?"

"I need you to help me destroy the Trade Federation."

"I thought you wanted me to stay here."

"I did, and still do. You will come back when we are finished."

So Ben, not really having any other choice, went with Qui-Gon.


	10. The Hunter

****

Chapter 10: The Hunter

A few things were different in the enchanted forest. Ben was gone, and Lee was nicer. The forest had softened up Lee's "royal" attitude.

Lee was starting to cook and clean up after himself. He still wouldn't help get any of the food, but he did stop eating all the biscuits and started eating real food. 

One night, a mean old hunter came into the forest. The water immediately froze. The hunter looked around with his beady, black eyes. He was wearing black, and riding a brown horse with a black saddle.

The hunter dismounted his horse and tied it to the tree on the pond rocks. He looked around and saw Cathy and Turtle's cabin. He pulled some cloth and rope out of his pack and sneaked silently over to the cabin.

Of course, Cathy and Turtle were asleep. Before they knew what was going on, they were gagged and tied up. 

The hunter threw them into a corner and began to root through their things. He would take anything he could sell. He decided it would be easier to take everything. He packed everything into some bags. He knew the horse couldn't lift it all. He needed something else to carry it in. He remembered seeing a blue car parked outside the forest. He stuffed his bags in the trunk and put Cathy and Turtle next to the car. Then he moved on to Lee's lean-to.

The hunter soon had Lee's stuff in the trunk and Lee tied and gagged next to Cathy and Turtle. 

Next the hunter moved on to Sarah, Tim and Ryan's cave. He did the same with them. Then he drove the car away, leaving all six of them on the ground in the middle of the forest. The hunter soon came back and threw the kinds into the car. He had already dropped their stuff off at his warehouse. He drove down a steep hill into a large cabin's driveway. He took the kids inside and put them in a large cage. He had a whole wall of guns opposite the cave. 

__

If only there were someone to help us, thought Cathy. There was.

Ben, being strong in The Force, could "hear" Cathy's cry for help, and stopped what he was doing. "Some of my friends are in trouble," he said. Ben flew in his X-Wing back to the Golda and ran to rescue his friends. 

He couldn't open the door of the cabin; it was locked. He whipped out his light saber and cut it right off its hinges. The door crashed into the cabin. The hunter turned from his wall of guns to see a boy with a light saber in his hand standing on top of the broken door. 

"Hey! Git outta here! Go on! Git!" the hunter yelled.

Ben walked closer to the hunter. "Don't make me use this," he said. 

"Oh! I'm so scairt!" the hunter said sarcastically. "A twelve-year-old with a light up sword ain't gonna hurt me!"

"You're wrong," said Ben.

"I ain't wrong! I ain't never wrong!" He chose a pistol from the wall of guns. He took careful aim and shot straight at Ben, and killed him…

…Or would have, but Ben was gone. Ben was now standing next to the hunter, his light saber at the hunter's throat. "I'll give you one more chance to let them go," he said.

"What are you gonna do? Chop me up with your toy sword?"

"Toy?" said Ben, acting confused. "I never knew it was a toy."

"Don't play games with me, boy!" the hunter shouted. He stepped forward through the light saber. His head stayed behind.

"I'm sorry you all had to see that. I warned him it was real. It seems that he doubted my word," said Ben to everyone else. He cut the lock off the cage with his light saber.

Everyone was soon untied. They gathered up their things and packed them into the car. They waited for Tim to drive all the things home, then he came back and drove them all home. They put everything back to normal.

After they had all recovered from the incident with the hunter, it was back to boring life. Ben was a little, sadder, because his master, Qui-Gon, had been killed by an evil Sith Lord know as Darth Maul.

One day, around 5:30 a.m., a huge, green dragon flew into the forest. There was a large golden shield with a red jewel in it around its chest. The dragon had scaly skin and huge wings. Its arms were as big as anyone in the forest's (except Ryan's) head was. 

On the dragon's head was a small, gray mouse with large pink ears and a long, pink tail. 

"Home again," said the dragon. He had a very deep and funny voice.

"Yes. I wonder if my brother is still here," said the mouse. It had a very high and squeaky voice, as you would expect a mouse to have. He jumped off the dragon's head and scampered off into the sunflowers.

Ryan came outside after dinner, to find the dragon lying in front of the food storage. Ryan just started at him.

"What are you looking at?" asked the dragon. 

"Youw cool!" said Ryan. 

"Thanks!" said the dragon. "I'm Ember. Who are you?"

"Wyan."

"Hey, Ryan. Have you seen Squeak?"

"Who's Squeak?"

"A little mouse."

"I'll look fow him." Ryan scampered off to look for Squeak. Ember went back to sleep. 

Later that night, while everyone was asleep, a tan and brown dog walked into the forest. He went right to Cathy and Turtle's cabin and curled up next to the door.

The next morning, Cathy woke at 5:30 (again) and found the dog asleep at the front door. She had no idea where this dog came from, or who it belonged to.

Sarah came outside to get food, which was now back in the bin, since winter was over. 

"Hey, Sarah! Know this dog?" called Cathy.

"Never seen him," Sarah called back. She went on to the food and got three biscuits. 

The dog sat up and stared at Cathy and Sarah. When Cathy came back from getting the food, the dog followed her inside. It went straight over to Turtle, who was still sleeping, and hopped onto his bed. The dog curled up at his feet and fell asleep.

Ben woke up. He got up and got his biscuit and mug from the table outside, and sat on the rocks by the pond to eat. Cathy came out to eat, and then Sarah joined them with her breakfast. 

Later in the morning, Tim and Turtle were sitting on "deer rock" talking and playing with the dog, Mocha. Mocha had been Turtle's brother's dog, and so he knew Turtle well. 

Squeak scampered out of the sunflowers and over to Ember, who was sleeping in his favorite place, by the food. 

Ben was talking to Sarah and Cathy by the rocks, and Ryan was playing in the water. 

Suddenly, Ryan jumped out of the water and shouted, "Bwww! That watew just got weally cold!" A moment later, the ice was frozen solid.


	11. Pokémon?

****

Chapter 11: Pokémon? 

A boy with blue hair (yes, blue) and black eyes walked into the forest. He had on baggy jeans and a T-shirt, and he had a blue backpack slung over his shoulder. 

"Look at his hair!" laughed Tim.

"You have a problem with my hair?" asked the boy.

"I've never seen anyone with blue hair!" said Tim. "You look funny! And you talk funny, too!" He fell over, laughing.

The boy walked over to him. "What do you want me to do about it?" he asked.

"Wash the dye out," suggested Turtle. 

"Dye? There's no dye for hair. And besides, it's natural."

"Yeah, right!" said Tim.

"Yeah, I am right!" The boy sat down on the rocks. Tim, Turtle, and Mocha got up and left. They went into their own cabins. 

"Come on, Ryan. We don't want you out here with this weirdo," said Tim. Little did he know this "weirdo" would later be his best friend.

Ryan went inside with Tim. So did Sarah, Ben and Cathy. 

The boy looked around and saw Ember lying there, sleeping. When someone who makes the water freeze comes in the forest, the animals usually run and hide, but since Ember had been sleeping, he didn't know someone bad had come into the forest.

"Wow! A Charizard! I'm going to catch it. It will make up for that Charmander that dumb boy stole." The boy went over to Ember. He took a small red and white ball out of his backpack. "Pikablu! Go!"

He threw the ball, and a blue and white creature came out. It looked like a blue egg with big blue ears and a skinny tail with a blue ball at the end. 

"Pikablu! Use your Water Gun attack!" said the boy. A stream of water came out of the creature's mouth and hit Ember's flame, putting it out.

Ember woke up. He tried to burn the boy and the creature, but all that came out was a thick puff of gray smoke. He shook his large head to try to scare them away. It worked. The boy was very scared of him, and he bolted back to the "deer rocks". The creature followed him.

Inside her cabin, Sarah was talking to Ben and Cathy

"That boy better leave soon," said Sarah, "or we won't be able to get any water."

"Yeah," agreed Cathy. She peeked out the door. "He's still sitting on the rock, except now he looks scared." She shrugged, opened the door, and walked outside. Sarah followed. They walked over to where the boy was sitting. 

"What do you want?" he sneered.

"We want you to leave," said Cathy.

"Why should I?" asked the boy.

"Because you're evil," said Sarah.

"So?" the boy asked.

"So we don't want you here!" said Cathy.

"Just for that, I think I'll stay longer," said the boy, smirking. "I'm sure there are some great Pokémon around here."

"What's he talking about?" asked Sarah.

"Pokémon?" said Cathy.

"Don't tell me you don't know what Pokémon are!"

"We don't," said Sarah.

"Well, I'm not gonna explain it, so I guess you'll never know!" He laughed, then got up and went to sit by the pond.

"That did a whole lot of good," said Sarah. 

Back in the cabin, they told Ben what the boy had said.

"I don't know what he was talking about," said Cathy. "What are Pokémon? Have you heard of them, Ben?"

"They sound vaguely familiar," said Ben.

"We need to go to plan B, whatever that is. We need him to leave, and the sooner, the better," said Sarah.

"Yeah, but how are we going to do it?" asked Cathy.

"We might be able to make him nicer, so the water would unfreeze," said Ben.

"Yeah, right. That guy could never be nice!" said Cathy.

"Never say never," said Ben.

Outside, the wind picked up, and the temperature dropped. The rest of the unfinished winter was coming. The boy was stuck in the forest.

The boy was beginning to get cold. He barged into Sarah's house where Tim and Ryan were playing a guessing game.

"Hey! Get out of here, you creep!" shouted Tim. 

The boy paid no attention. He sat down by the fire. Sarah came in the door.

"Tim, I think it's winter again," she said.

"You mean Mr. Blue Hair is going to be staying with us?" Tim groaned.

"My name's Damien, not Mr. Blue Hair."

Lee came in with his things and sat down at the table. 

"Who's that?" asked Lee.

"It's _Damien_," said Tim, mocking the new kid. 

"I thought it was Mw. Bwue Haiw!" said Ryan.

Damien scowled at him. "Fine. You can call me Mr. Blue Hair, and I'll call you Mr. Baby."

"Hey! I'm not a baby!" shouted Ryan.

"Yeah you are," said Damien.

"Cut it out!" yelled Sarah. "We all have to deal with each other for a week or two, so try to get along!"

"I will if Damien does!" said Tim. 

"I will if you do," said Damien. 

Sarah sighed and went over to talk to Cathy.

Damien sat and kicked at the fire grate. Ryan played with his teddy on the floor next to his bed. Tim was sitting facing Lee with his back the grate. He and Lee were playing catch with a rock.

Suddenly, Damien kicked the grate a little too far, knocking over a pail over water sitting next to it. The pail splashed all over Tim.

Of course, it was enchanted water, so it dried immediately, but Tim was so mad he didn't notice. He stood up, turned around and glared at Damien. "That's it! I'm out of here!" Tim shouted. He stomped out the door and slammed it behind him. Lee got up and ran after him. 

"Hey! Don't leave me hewe with dopey!" Ryan shouted. He hopped up off the floor, still holding his teddy, and followed Tim and Lee outside.

Soon, everyone was forced back into the cave with Damien. Cathy, Turtle, and Ben were pretty sure about their house this time. Lee, Tim, and Ryan came in from outside (though not happily) and Sarah followed them in.

It was a bitter cold winter, much colder than the last, and much snowier. The wind blew snow against the wooden door of the cave, threatening anyone to come outside. No one would. Everyone, including Damien, was toasty warm inside. The animals had all gone into the other cave with the bears, except Moonglow, who had never come back after the last winter.

The first night was horrible. Damien was annoying everyone. He enjoyed making mean jokes about people. He was the only one who laughed.

Lee was working on making a bed. When winter started, he'd hauled a ton of wood into the cave to work on it. He copied off Ben's design. Lee figured that, with Ben there, he would never get a chance to move back in with Cathy and Turtle. When winter was over, he would make his lean-to into a cabin. 

No one could get to sleep that night. The wind howled. Tim snored. Damien complained.

"I don't know why I have to sleep on the floor," Damien complained. "After all, I'm the guest."

"How many times do we have to tell you?" said Tim. "You're not our guest!"

"Then how come you won't let me leave?"

"You can't leave," said Ben. "It's winter."

"So? Just watch me!" Damien picked up his backpack and stomped out the door. A few minutes later, he came back in and slammed the door.

"Darn!" said Tim. "I was hoping he wouldn't come back!"

"Ha, ha, ha," laughed Damien sarcastically. He lay down by the fire, and using his sack as a pillow, went to sleep. Everyone else did the same.

Damien liked to sleep late, so he was not happy when Sarah "accidentally-on-purpose" dropped a pot and woke him.

"What'd you do that for?" he asked, sitting up and glaring at Sarah.

Sarah didn't answer. She picked up the pot and went back to work, smiling.

Damien was fed up with these folks, but now he knew he couldn't leave. He might as well make the best of it. He stood up and grabbed a biscuit off the fire grate. 

"Hey! That's not for you! You get the poisoned one!" Sarah said quietly.

Damien laughed. "Too late," he said. The whole biscuit was already in his mouth. The water in the pond went up a few degrees.

When they were awake, everyone in the cave, except Damien, went to Cathy's cabin to have a meeting. 

"We need to get rid of Damien. He's rude and stupid and he's getting on my nerves!" said Tim. 

"Yeah, but how?" asked Cathy.

"Well, as I said before, we should try to make him nicer," said Ben.

"How do we do that?" asked Turtle.

"There is a theory that if you are nice to someone, they will be nice to you in return," said Ben.

"Are you saying we have to be nice to him?" asked Tim.

"Pretty much," said Ben. 

"Eww!" yelled Ryan.

"Well, if it's the only thing that will work…" said Sarah, but she was cut off.

"Aw! Why don't you just use your light sword and cut off his head like you did to that hunter?" said Tim.

"That's the kind of thing that would turn me to the Dark Side," said Ben.

No one knew what the Dark Side was, but they ignored that and went on.

"I guess we have no choice. He's stubborn and won't leave, so it'll be easier to make him nice than to try and get him to leave," Sarah said. She wasn't too keen on this idea. Being nice to Damien? Come on?

They went back to the cave. It wasn't going to be easy to be nice to Damien. After all, he wouldn't be nice to them for a while, maybe not ever.

Tim sighed and walked in the door to his cave. Damien was sitting at the table, reading a book.

"What's that you're reading?" asked Tim with fake enthusiasm.

"A book," said Damien.

"Nah, really!" said Tim sarcastically. Sarah gave him a disapproving look. 

"It's a book on Pokémon," said Damien.

"Oh, please!" said Tim. "Pokémon are about as real as Jedi Knights!"

"I don't know what Jedi are, or if they're real, but Pokémon are real," said Damien.

"Whatever," said Lee.

"Here! I'll prove it to you!" Damien showed Tim the book. "This book has all the Pokémon from one to one hundred fifty."

"Whoa, that's cool!" Tim and Lee said as Damien showed him a picture of a greenish-blue animal with a plant on its back called Bulbasaur. 

"Yeah, but I don't have one," said Damien.

"Show us one you have," said Tim, who still didn't believe that Pokémon were real.

"Alright." Damien flipped to a page with a white horse with flames for a mane and tail on it. The name at the top of the page was, "Ponyta". "Ponyta's a fire-horse Pokémon. Its hooves are ten times harder than diamonds. Want to see it?"

Both Tim and Lee's eyes lit up. "Sure!" Tim said.

Damien fished around in his bag until he found another small ball. It was the same as the other, half red and half white. He threw it. 

A fire-horse came out. "It looks just like the picture!" Tim said. Ryan, Sarah, and Lee looked at the book, then back at the horse.

"I'd let you ride it, but it'd burn you. It only lets people it trusts ride it," said Damien. He walked over to it and stroked its neck. He jumped onto the Ponyta's back and rode it around the cave.

"I want to twy!" said Ryan.

"You'll get burned," warned Damien.

"I don't cawe!" 

"It'll hurt," said Sarah. 

"No it won't! If he can do it, I can do it!" Ryan shouted. He ran over to Ponyta and tried to jump on. He was too short to mount it.

"Lucky you're too short," said Damien. He picked up Ryan, whispered something into Ponyta's ear, and put Ryan slowly on its back.

"Yippee!" Ryan shouted. "Move howsey!" He wiggled around on Ponyta.

Damien jumped on behind him and kicked Ponyta gently. It walked around the room.

Outside, the wind blew and the snow was falling heavily, but the pond was getting warmer. 


	12. Darth Dude

****

Chapter 12: Darth Dude

From then on, Damien was much nicer. He did more to help out than Lee did. This was amazing, because he used to be a cheating, lying, stealing, creep. He had also been in an especially bad mood, because one of his Pokémon (Charmander) had been "stolen" (He had actually abandoned it in the rain, though it was a fire-type and almost died. A boy brought the Pokémon to the hospital. Then, Damien decided he wanted the Pokémon back. The two boys told the Pokémon to choose between them. It chose the new boy, so Damien called this stealing, since the Pokémon was originally his.).

The winter lasted a few days more. Then, the snow began to melt. There had been a lot of it. Some drifts were over eight feet high! This caused some flooding. Before anyone got wet, Snowy swooped down.

"Make sure no one gets wet," Snowy said to Sarah, the first person who came outside. "Unlike when you swim in the pond, you will stay wet for hours. You will surely get sick, at least a cold, but as bad as hypothermia!"

So, everyone was sure to stay dry. They used chairs and a table as rafts, and spare wood as paddles.

Damien was sitting on the "deer rocks" and reading his book. Ben came out for the first time since winter had been over. He looked at the pond, which was separated, somehow, from the floodwater. It was slushy. 

"The pond is melting," said Ben.

"Of course it is; winter is over," said Damien. 

"Not because of that, because you're melting," said Ben.

"Huh?"

"You're not melting, but you're melting."

"What?" Damien asked, but Ben didn't answer. Damien shrugged and went back to his book.

Suddenly, Cathy shouted, "Oh, no!" and ran out of the cabin onto the table that was tied to it.

Damien looked up from his book. Ben, who had been sitting in a chair by the big tree with his eyes closed, did, too.

"What happened?" asked Damien. The pond water got a degree warmer.

"Water's flooding in the house from under the door!" explained Cathy. 

"Get out as quick as you can!" Snowy called. "Don't touch anything that's wet!"

Cathy grabbed the lantern and beds and dragged them onto the table. She paddled over to Sarah's and knocked on the door. Sarah helped her drag things in.

When they were done, Sarah asked, "Where's Turtle?"

"Say, where _is _Turtle?" asked Cathy.

Suddenly, they heard a "Help!" from outside. They raced to the door.

Turtle was up in the big tree, hanging from a thin branch over the water. 

"Help!" he called.

"What happened?" asked Cathy.

"I was about to drop down to my raft, but then I noticed that it had come untied and was floating away. I couldn't get back up in the tree," said Turtle.

Ben, who was right under the tree, paddled over to him. Turtle dropped onto Ben's raft, and Ben paddled him over to his own raft. They heard a snicker.

"Hey!" Turtle shouted. "It's not funny!"

Two blue and pink ears popped out of the water. Damien's creature popped its head out of the water. It was laughing its head off.

"Pikablu!" Damien scolded. "That wasn't nice!" The creature hung its head.

"Hey! Is that a Pokémon?" asked Tim, eagerly, from the door of his cave.

"Yeah," said Damien. Tim hopped onto a raft and paddled over to where Damien was sitting.

When Tim got there, Pikablu came up on the rocks to see him.

"What's this one called?" asked Tim.

"Marill, but I nicknamed it Pikablu because it looks like a blue Pikachu," said Damien. He showed Tim the picture of Pikachu in the book.

"How can it stay in the water without getting sick?" asked Sarah.

"It's a water-type. It can stay in the water all its life. It won't be affected by water."

Tim opened the Pokémon book to the index and looked for Marill.

"You won't find it in there," said Damien. "Marill isn't one of the original one hundred fifty. It was discovered after this book was made."

"Oh, cool! Did you discover it?" asked Tim.

"No, some professor did," Damien answered. He began to "melt" some more.

Later that day, everyone was gathered in the cave.

"Show me some more Pokémon!" Tim said.

"Okay. Turtle, hand me my backpack," said Damien.

Suddenly, everyone heard a beeping noise. It was Ben's Comlink. Ben went to into the corner of the cave to answer it, but everyone could still hear it.

"Help me, Obi-Wan Kanobi! You're my only hope!" said the voice from the Comlink.

"Your last name's Kanobi?" said Tim.

"Your name's Obi-Wan?" said Damien. They both fell out of their chairs, they were laughing so hard. Ben ignored them. 

"What's wrong Leia?" asked Ben.

"Another Sith Lord. He's more evil than Darth Vader!" said Leia.

"I'll be right there."

"He's on the planet, Clowen."

"Alright."

"Thank you, Obi-Wan."

"Oh, Leia, from now on, it's Ben."

"Okay, bye."

Ben put away his Comlink and walked to the door.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," he said as he left.

Damien, who had stopped laughing now, got up from the floor, grabbed his sack and followed Ben out the door. He wanted to be in on the adventure. No one noticed him leave.

Ben jumped into his X-Wing, which was hidden in the leaves outside the magical clearing, and took off for Clowen. Damien pulled a Pokéball out of his sack and threw it. A large bird popped out.

"Pidgeot, take me to the planet Clowen."

Pidgeot looked confused.

"Just follow him!" said Damien. He pointed to Ben, taking off in his X-Wing.

Pidgeot flapped its wings. Damien jumped on it and it flew behind Ben, making sure not to be seen. 

When they got to Clowen, Ben landed his X-Wing and Damien landed Pidgeot.

"What are you doing here, Damien?" asked Ben without looking behind him.

"Following you," Damien replied.

"You shouldn't have come. It's dangerous."

Damien shrugged.

"Leave while you still can," said Ben.

He left and went into a large building. Damien still followed.

In the middle of a long, dark, corridor, Ben noticed Damien was still following him. 

"Damien, didn't I tell you not to follow me?"

"Yeah, you did."

Ben sighed. "Well, if you're willing to risk your life…"

"Risk my life? Please!"

Ben kept walking. At the end of the corridor was a door. Ben opened it, went inside, and shut it again before Damien could get inside.

Ben saw a weird guy on a black horse wearing all black. The guy had long, blonde hair and he was very ugly.

"Back from the dead to save you friends?" said the guy. "I am planing to blow up Tatooine next."

"Actually, I was never dead," said Ben.

"What? My master killed you!"

"I'm not aware of that ever happening."

"What?"

"The "me" your mater killed was a projection through The Force. All I needed to do was provide a distraction. The easiest way to do this was to appear dead. A projection did that for me. Your mater should have sensed that."

"I'll do what my master should have done a long time ago!" The Sith Lord drew out his light saber.

Ben drew out his light saber. 

At this point, Damien forced open the Force-enforced door and tripped into the room. The Sith Lord and Ben looked up.

Damien looked confused. He hadn't heard the first part of Ben and Leia's conversation about the Sith Lord because he had been laughing and rolling on the floor. "What's happening 'ere?" he asked.

"I'm going to kill him!" said the Sith Lord, jumping off his horse, still holding his light saber. "While I'm at it, I think I'll kill you, too, you blue-haired weirdo!" He cackled.

Damien looked even more confused. "Who are you?" he asked the Sith Lord. 

"Darth Dude, the coolest Sith Lord there ever was, and ever will be!" Darth Dude laughed again. Ben and Damien rolled their eyes.

They began to battle. Not a battle like Damien knew, of course (a Pokémon battle), a Jedi/Sith battle. Damien just stood around watching them. They had weird swords. A beam of light came out of a silver handle when they pushed a red button. It was a solid beam, so when they clashed, it made a noise. It was really weird.

Soon, Ben had Darth Dude "pinned", his light saber at his throat, just like with the hunter. Since there was no point in telling stubborn Damien to close his eyes, Ben quickly decapitated Darth Dude, and that was the end of him.

"That was very… appetizing," said Damien.

"Well, I would've told you not to look, but you wouldn't have."

"You're probably right." 

They went back to the forest.


	13. Another Anakin?

****

Chapter 13: Another Anakin?

It wasn't long before Ben received another message, though the next one was not on his Comlink. It was in his head. There were no words, just screaming.

"I need to leave again," he said. He stood up and walked to the door. Damien got up, too. "No, Damien. You have to stay here. This might be more dangerous than before. I don't know what to expect this time, and Darth Dude was too stupid to hurt any one. This time, it's too risky."

"Risky? Like the last time right?" said Damien sarcastically.

"Fine, come if you want, but if you get hurt, I'm not responsible," said Ben. He walked out the door to his hidden X-Wing. Damien grabbed his backpack and followed. 

This planet was much farther away. They had to travel a long way. Clowen was almost next to Golda, but Coresant was much farther, and that's where Ben's mind told him they should go.

They landed on the planet. There was a crowd around a collapsed building. Ben and Damien rushed up to join it.

"Hey! You kids don't belong here!" said a man.

"Han, we…" Ben started.

"Look kids, I don't know how you know my name, but it's dangerous here! No place for kids!" said Han.

"You know me, just as a different form," said Ben.

"I don't have time for games! Get out of here!"

"You didn't like me then. Luke said…"

"Luke? Luke was with some old guy, not a twelve-year old!" Han was really getting mad.

"Twelve? Who's twelve? I'm seventy. You would know me as an old man."

"Ben, let's go. You must be mixed up or something," said Damien.

"Definitely," Han said to him quietly.

"I'm Obi-Wan," said Ben. Damien smothered a laugh. "Remember now?"

"But, but, you died! I saw it with my own eyes!" said Han, confused. Damien looked just as confused.

Ben sighed. He didn't want to have to tell this story again. "Looks can be deceiving. Only a projection of me died. I still live. A few days ago I talked to your wife. She must have known I was still living. So does Luke."

"How come they never told me?" asked Han. He didn't wait for an answer before he said, "Speaking of Leia, she's trapped under the rubble." He pointed to the collapsed building.

A boy, about six years old, with dirty-blonde hair pulled on Han's pant leg. "Daddy," he whined.

"Not now. I'm busy," said Han. 

Suddenly, many people in the crowd began talking all at once. Han rushed to the front. Ben, Damien, and the little boy followed. Many people had been found, including Leia. They were pulling them from the rubble and rushing them to the nearest hospital. Han followed, then stopped.

"Anakin, where are your brother and sister?" asked Han.

"Over there somewhere," said Anakin, pointing. 

"Run and get them," Han said. 

Anakin ran and came back with his siblings, obviously twins. They both had dark brown hair and blue eyes. All six of them hurried off to the hospital.

When they got there, Han quickly went to Leia's room. 

"How is she?" he asked a doctor.

"Not too good. Almost halfway dead. You must see her. Leave the children outside in the hallway. 

Anakin, the twins, Damien, and Ben stood in the hallway.

"You better come, too, Obi-Wan," said Han.

Ben looked at Damien, who was trying hard not to laugh. "It's Ben from now on."

"Okay." They went inside and Damien was left alone with the three kids. Suddenly, he heard the girl laugh.

"What's so funny?" he asked her.

"Your hair!" said the girl. "It's blue!"

"Ha, ha!" said Damien sarcastically. Of course, it was normal to have blue hair on his planet. "So," he said, changing the subject, "your name's Anakin, but what are your names?"

"I'm Jaina," said the girl. 

"Jacen," said the boy. "What's yours?"

"My name's Damien."

Ben came out. "Damien," said Ben, motioning for him to come over. He came. 

"Leia's not too good. You heard the doctor. Han is going to have his hands full, so…." He paused.

"He wants us to take care of the kids for a while," finished Damien.

"Right. It's too much for him. He says Anakin is a handful."

"We can handle it. I just don't know what Sarah and Cathy will think of this. They're still getting used to me."

"Exactly."

"We could keep them hidden."

"Good idea." Ben went back in to tell this to Han. Han came out to talk to the kids.

"Kids," he said to Anakin, Jaina, and Jacen, "your mom's not doing too well. I'm going to be really busy for a while, so these guys (he pointed to Ben and Damien) have offered to take you back to their house."

"Cool," said Anakin.

"I'll take you back in the Falcon," said Han. After stopping at home and getting some things, they flew home in the Falcon, and Ben flew behind in his X-Wing.

They got home at night, luckily. They sneaked into the bears' cave. Strangely, the bears were gone, so they started a fire. Ben got his and Damien's things from the other cave.

They set up their belongings in the cave. Damien had hardly anything except his Pokéballs and the backpack he carried them in. Ben had all his stuff packed away in the drawer under his bed. Each of the kids had a bag.

They got to bed finally, at least some of them, Damien and Ben. The others couldn't sleep. Anakin couldn't sleep because he wasn't tired, and Jaina and Jacen couldn't sleep because Anakin was kicking them. He had been sleeping on the outside, but he had rolled over Jaina and was now in lying in between her and Jacen.

"Hey! Get off of me!" said Jaina.

"Nope!" said Anakin.

"Stop kicking me!" said Jacen.

__

Anakin!

"What? And it's Anni!"

"Huh?" said Jaina and Jacen. They hadn't heard the voice. It was in Anakin's head.

"Isn't that a girl's name?" asked Damien, who had been woken by Anakin's outburst.

"No! It's not a girl's name!" shouted Anakin.

"Whatever. Just stop fighting and go to sleep!" Damien said. They did.

The next morning, they all woke up, except Anakin. "You can't wake him up," said Jacen. "Only stupid sounds wake him, because he's so stupid."

"Don't call your brother stupid," said Damien, though he knew he couldn't even count how many times he had called his two sisters stupid.

"But he is stupid! He doesn't even know ten plus ten!" said Jacen

"How old is he?" asked Damien.

"He's six years old!" said Jacen.

"How old are you?"

"Seven."

"Then of course, he wouldn't be as smart as you." Damien told Jacen. However, he knew he'd called his six-year-younger sister stupid before.

Jacen sat down at the fire. "I want to go outside!" he complained.

"You can't. We don't want anyone to find out you're here until the flood's over," explained Ben.

Jacen sighed and turned back to the fire. Ben went out to get something for breakfast. Damien went outside to get wood for a cage he was building for Pikablu. Jaina came over and sat next to Jacen.

Around ten o'clock, Anakin woke up. "I want breakfast!" he shouted.

"Make it yourself!" said Jaina.

"No!" shouted Anakin, but he got up anyway to find something to eat. He didn't know he was not supposed to go outside. He found Ember lying in front of the food, and jumped on top of him. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm trying to sleep," said Ember in is deep, funny voice. "Who are you?"

"I'm Anni."

"You're a girl?"

"No! Why does everyone here think I am a girl?"

"Because Annie is a girl's name."

"It's short for Anakin! Happy now?" He stomped away. 

"What kind of a name is Anakin?" said Ember. He went back to sleep.

Anakin, not being able to find food, went back inside the cave. Unfortunately, he was just like his grandfather (the other Anakin). He didn't follow directions like he should have. He was jumping off the walls. Literally. Being strong in The Force like his mother, he was an extremely good jumper. Besides jumping off the walls, he was also screaming.

Damien came in from outside and saw Anakin jumping all over the place. Before he could say anything, Anakin jumped out the door, and luckily, landed on a chair. He jumped up and down, rocking the chair. 

Suddenly the chair tipped over and Anakin tumbled off into the water.

Though Anakin didn't, Damien knew that the water stayed on you no matter what you did to get dry. He tried to grab Anakin out of the water, but Anakin kept jumping away. 

"Ha, ha! You can't catch me!" Anakin yelled. He jumped into a tree.

__

Anakin!

Anakin stopped in mid-jump and fell back into the water.

__

Unless you want to be very sick, I suggest you get in bed right now. 

Anakin looked around, but he could not see where the voice was coming from. "I don't know where you are but, first of all, it's Anni! Second of all, I'm not going to get sick from being in the water! It's hot outside!"

__

Alright, Anni. You'll get sick from the water no matter how hot it is outside. The longer you stay in there, the sicker you'll be when you get out.

"Then I'll never get out!" shouted Anakin. No one knew whom he was shouting to, except Ben.

The water will eventually dry up, so get out.

"Fine! I'll get out!" said Anakin. As soon as he got out, he was sick. He didn't care.

"Glad you decided to come in," said Damien. "Get in bed."

"No, no, no!" shouted Anakin. "I don't feel sick at all."

__

That was a lie, and you know it.

This voice in his head was getting annoying. And, it was familiar. "Stop it, Ben!" he shouted.

"So, you finally figured it out," said Ben, out loud this time.

"I told you he was stupid," said Jacen. "He couldn't even figure that out, whatever it was."

Anakin sighed. "Now who's stupid?"

"You!"

"Am not!"

"Are, too!"

"Both of you stop it! I've had enough of this today!" shouted Damien.

Anakin was finally convinced to get into bed, and when he got there, he was chained down so that he wouldn't reconsider. He was very sick. He had a very bad cold and he was semi-delirious. He started saying strange things, such as…

"The dragon's gonna eat Naboo!"

"What?" asked Damien.

"The dragon's gonna eat Naboo!" Anakin jumped out of bed, despite the chains, and jumped around the room screaming it. 

"Look! I don't know what you're talking about, but get back in bed now!" Damien shouted angrily. He grabbed Anakin and got him back into bed. 

"I take back what I said before," said Damien, later, "we can't handle him." He laughed a little. "Actually, I mean it. I'm no doctor."

"Well, we do have someone here who is," said Ben. "Get Sarah."

"Me? I think you forgetting two things. One, Sarah hates me at the moment, so does everyone else here. Two, the others aren't supposed to know about them," Damien said.

"I don't think Sarah would be too happy with what we've done, but I think Han will be less happy if Anakin gets very sick," said Ben.

"Anni," Anakin screamed.

"Whatever. Do you think it will be a good idea if _I _tell them?" asked Damien.

"It doesn't matter. If they're mad, they'll be mad at both of us. There's nothing we can do about it," said Ben.

So Damien went to get Sarah. He went to the other cave and knocked on the door. Sarah answered it. 

"Oh, it's you," she said. She was about to shut the door on him.

"Sarah, wait," Damien started, putting his foot in the doorway so she wouldn't slam it in his face.

"What do you want?" asked Sarah.

"Well, it's kind of an emergency. Ben said you were a good doctor so I…"

"How did Ben know I used to be a doctor?" asked Sarah. She shrugged. "I must have told him and I don't remember. Look, I'll help you if I can. Where have you guys been?"

"Just follow me," said Damien. He led her back to his cave. They went inside. 

"Oh, good. You got her to come," said Ben.

"What can I do for you?" asked Sarah.

"First, we have some explaining to do," said Ben. "The second time Damien and I were away, I ran into an old acquaintance of mine. His wife had been almost killed in an explosion, so we offered to take his kids until she got better."

Sarah didn't look so annoyed anymore. "So what does my being a doctor have to do with any of this?" she asked.

"Well, one of the kids, Anakin, or Anni -yes, I know it's a strange name - fell or jumped into the water. Now he is sick. He stayed in the water for quite a while. That's where you come in," explained Ben.

Sarah didn't know what to say. "I'll see what I can do, but this is not something I can easily deal with. This is enchantment we're talking about here." She went to look at Anakin.

In a few minutes she reported, "He's pretty sick, but he'll be okay in a while if you keep him in bed and keep him warm."

"Thanks," said Damien and Ben.

"So I should keep quiet about this, right?" asked Sarah.

"No, it's time we told everyone else. They deserve to know," said Ben.

"Yeah, and how long do you think we'll be able to keep them quiet?" asked Damien.

"Not very," said Jaina.

"I didn't even notice you there," Sarah said to her. "Who's that?" she asked Ben.

"That's Jaina, and that's Jacen," said Ben.

"I didn't see him, either," said Sarah.

That night, they had a little meeting in the forest. Ben told them all what had happened. No one seemed to mind much that there were three more in the forest.

Anakin somehow worked his way out of the chains during the meeting. He bounced out the door and over to the meeting, which was being held in the other cave.

"Hey!" Tim shouted, as Anakin jumped onto the floor next to his brother. "I thought you got kicked out of here!"

"I've never been here before in my life!" Anakin argued.

"Yes you were! You ate a mushroom and got catapulted out!" shouted Tim.

"No," said Ben, stopping the argument, "that was his grandfather."

"Another Anakin?" said Sarah.

"But how is that possible?" asked Cathy. "We've only been in this forest a few weeks!"

"Not true," said Snowy. "You have been in here what may have been a few weeks in forest days, but forest days are different. While it is one day in here, it could be one day, week, month, or even year out of the forest."

"Weird," said Turtle. 

"It always changes. But the forest knows, if you want to, let's say, get a job, it will be the same as regular days until you stop the job."

"Well, if we've been here three generations, how come we haven't aged?" asked Sarah.

"You don't age here. Since time passes irregularly, there is no way to compute ages, so, the forest doesn't try. You just stay the same age. The ducklings, for instance, have been ducklings for two hundred, twenty-two years," said Snowy.

"When does time start again?" asked Sarah. 

"When you have been out of the forest for a month consecutively, you will start to age again."

The meeting was over, as no one had anything else to say now.

"I think they took that pretty well," said Damien.


	14. Portholes

****

Chapter 14: Portholes

There was something the people and animals of the forest (except Moonglow) did not know about the pond. It could do something more than just freeze. It could make teleportations from planet to planet. The porthole was open for thirty minutes after the person activating it went out. Anyone who jumped in the certain area of water on either side when the porthole was opened was teleported.

There were a few conditions to teleport. It could only teleport to planets where people in the forest lived. You had to have had a permanent home before you came, so this did not work for Tim, Cathy, Sarah or Ryan. You had to be the first in the water. You could not trigger the teleportations if you were an animal. Pikablu was in the water most of the time, and he was considered an animal, so the portholes did not open often. You also couldn't travel during winter and some floods.

Soon, the water in the flood dried up. It took only about an hour, even though there was about three feet of water collected. Damien decided to go swimming. He, of course, didn't know about the portholes. He dove in and was teleported back to his home planet, Pokémon, in the largest body of water within twenty miles of his home. The planet Pokémon was very small, so the largest body of water within twenty miles of his house was also the largest body of water on the planet, Fuchsia Ocean.

Damien landed with a splash in the Fuchsia Ocean. He looked around. He knew this place well. It was the beach where he and his family always came during the summer. But how had he gotten there?

He got up out of the water and onto the beach. He gasped as he saw a familiar face. It was one of his enemies riding her bike around the beach. She had on short jean shorts and a yellow tank top. She had bright orange hair pulled into a short ponytail on top of her head. She was coming straight towards him! 

Damien really wasn't in the mood for this, but he had no time to hide. The girl stopped her bike, got off, and let it fall to the ground. 

"Hey! I know you! You're that creep who abandoned his Charmander back at Route 24!" said the girl.

"Yeah? So what if I am?" answered Damien.

"Well, I hope you know, that Charmander evolved into a Charizard!" said the girl.

Damien raised an eyebrow. "How could that little friend of yours get a Charizard? I bet it won't even obey him!" He laughed. 

The girl looked away. It didn't obey him. "It wouldn't have obeyed you either!" she said. 

Damien looked surprised. "You really think so? A tough trainer is needed to train a Charizard. I'm definitely tough. Your friend is just a nerd."

The girl was not happy. "He's not even my friend! I was just following him to get my bike back! Now I have it! I don't even talk to him anymore!"

Suddenly, a boy with a red and white hat and black, spiky, hair called over to the girl, "Hey, Misty! Come, on! Let's go!"

Misty blushed. Damien laughed. This was the boy she was supposedly not friends with anymore. She hopped back onto her bike, scowled at Damien and rode away.

"Hey, Ash!" shouted Damien. "Enjoy your Charizard!" He laughed.

Ash turned away and ran to keep up with Misty on her bike.

"Now, how am I going to get out of here?" Damien said, half to himself.

__

Go back in the water. It seemed Moonglow wasn't the only one who knew about the teleportations.

"Huh?" said Damien. There was no one around him. He decided to try it. He jumped back in the water and came out in the pond at the forest. "This is so weird," he said. He came out of the pond and was immediately dry. He went back to his cave and worked on his Pokémon cage.

Meanwhile Turtle was sleepwalking around his cabin. He got around to the door, then managed to push it open in his sleep. He walked across the forest to the bear's cave. When he got there, he opened the door, walked over to Anakin, and said, "Wakey, Anakin," in a really dreamy voice. Since this was a stupid sound, Anakin woke up. He didn't like being woken up, so he slapped Turtle hard across the face. Turtle woke up, looked around confusedly, and went back to his cabin.


	15. When Good Animals Go Bad

****

Chapter 15: When Good Animals Go Bad

This was very strange. Misty had jumped into the Fuchsia Ocean and come out in a small pond in a forest clearing. "How did I get here?" she wondered.

She got out of the water and wandered around. Damien stepped out of his cave and saw her.

"What are you doing here?" they both asked at the same time. 

"I live here!" said Damien.

"I jumped into the water and was transported here," Misty said.

"If you jump back in, you'll go back, so do it, fast," said Damien. 

Misty went back through the porthole to her planet, Pokémon. 

It had been a day since Damien had gone swimming. The porthole should have been closed. He shrugged it off and soon forgot about it.

The next day, Snowy was in a bad mood. She came in from hunting. "What's for breakfast, Snowy?" asked Damien.

"Do it yourself! What do I look like? Your slave?" Snowy shouted.

__

She must have had a bad night, though Damien. He got up and went to fix his own breakfast. 

It turned out Snowy wasn't the only animal in a bad mood. When Damien got to the food storage, Ember said, "You can't get food."

"Why not?" asked Damien.

"Because I don't want you to." Ember breathed fire up into the air. Damien backed off. He went back to his cave.

Later, everyone was outside, doing something or other. Sarah and Cathy were talking.

"What's wrong with all the animals?" asked Sarah. "They all seem to be in a bad mood."

"I know. I tried to get something for breakfast, but Ember said I couldn't." said Cathy.

"Yeah. Something weird is going on here."

"You don't think it could be one of those new kids, do you?"

"I never thought of that. I don't think Ben would bring those kind of people into the forest. And besides, when there's evil around the animals usually run away, and the water freezes." 

"What about Damien?"

"Hey! He's not as mean as you think."

Suddenly, the conversation was stopped. All the animals were glaring at the girls and growling. "Let's get out of here!" shouted Sarah. They both fled in separate directions; Cathy went to Lee's cabin, and Sarah went to her own cabin. Everyone else went to the nearest home. The animals split up and guarded each of the four homes.

"I knew something weird was going on here," said Sarah.

"I agree."

Sarah didn't know there was someone else in the cabin with her. "Of all the people I could be stuck with, it just had to be you! You know, Cathy was right about you! You're a lot meaner than I thought! Trying to scare me like that!"

"I wasn't trying to scare you. I though you were talking to me," said Damien. His stomach growled. He hadn't eaten all day. He noticed Cathy's pot had some stew in it. He and Sarah shared it.

In Sarah's cabin, Ryan was sleeping. Anakin was the only other person in the cabin. He was kicking the fire grate. Suddenly, he kicked it too far, knocking the fire over onto his foot.

"Ow!" Anakin yelled. He hopped up and down on his good foot. 

Ryan woke up. "Stop yelling!" he shouted, but once he saw what Anakin was yelling at, he started to laugh. He laughed so hard, he fell out of bed. 

Anakin stuck his burned foot into the emergency fire bucket. Still screaming, he sat down on Tim's bed.

In Lee's cabin, which was now finished, were Cathy, Tim, Jacen, and Turtle. Ember was guarding their door. There was a knock on the door.

Jacen went to answer it. The basket they used to collect their food (if it was too much to carry) was floating at the door. An enchantment had been placed on the basket. The basket was now "alive". It could move on its own. In it, were some biscuits.

"Wow! Thanks!" Jacen said. The basket dumped four biscuits on the table and floated back out of the cabin. 

"Let's eat!" said Lee and Tim, who were always hungry.

"I don't know, you guys. There's something fishy about all this," said Cathy.

"You don't know what you're talking about, Cathy! This food's perfectly fine! Look!" said Tim. 

Cathy looked at the biscuits on the table. "Well, I guess they're okay," she said.

Lee and Tim took a biscuit each and ate it. A few seconds later, they gasped as if they had eaten something really spicy.

"Hot, hot, hot!" shouted Lee. Cathy handed him a bottle of milk, which he drank quickly. Tim drank from a pitcher next to the fire.

Tim groaned. "I don't feel so good," he said. He sat down on Lee's chair. Lee lay down on his bed. 

Meanwhile, the basket was at it again. With a new batch of biscuits smothered in hot sauce, it floated over to Sarah's cave. 

Anakin was still whining about his foot. The basket flew in and dumped two biscuits on the table. 

"Food!" Anakin cried, hopping over to the table and eating both biscuits the basket had left. 

In an instant, his mouth was on fire. He looked around desperately for something to drink. He spotted the emergency fire bucket that he had stuck his foot in, and drank the bucket's entire content. He lay down in Tim's bed, head under the cover and feet sticking out. 

"We better get out of here, unless we want to be fried!" said Jacen, in the other cabin. Ember was standing by the door, an evil look in his red eyes. 

"We can't go out the door; find something that we could bust the back wall with!" said Cathy. They searched around the cabin for something. In the drawer under Lee's bed, there was a fairly sharp knife. Ember banged on the door with his tail.

"I found a knife!" shouted Cathy. 

"Hurry up and use it!" Turtle said. Cathy jammed the knife into the back wall of the cabin. Since Lee had built it, it was not very strong. The knife went through fairly easily. 

Cathy hacked at the wall until a large chunk fell out of it. It was just large enough for them to fit through. She left the knife on the floor and squeezed through. Turtle, Tim, and Jacen did the same.

"Now what?" Turtle asked. The house shook as Ember hit the door with his tail again. 

"Let's go to my cave," suggested Jacen. "Our door is made of rock. The dragon can't burn it."

They counted to three and bolted out across the forest into Ben's cave. Ember burst through the door and saw the hole in the wall. He was mad. He got out of the house and set in on fire. He went on to Cathy's cabin and bashed the door with his tail.

"Uh, oh! He's coming after us!" said Sarah, who had been watching out the window in the cabin door. 

There was a small crack in the back of the cabin used to get light and heat into the cabin, but it was not large enough to squeeze out of. 

"What'll we do?" asked Sarah.

Ember pushed in the door. "I've got you now!" he said. He breathed fire straight at them.

They ducked just in time. Ember had burned a hole big enough for them to get through, but the house had not caught fire. They hurried out the hole in the wall and ran around to Ben's cave, the closest house not on fire.

Ember pushed his big head out the hole in the back wall and tried to get them as they ran around the corner. He finally gave up and went to Sarah's cave. 

Anakin heard Ember knock on the door with his tail. "What was that?" he asked.

"I don't know, but it doesn't sound good!" said Ryan. He jumped up as Ember hit the wooden door again. "We bettew get out of hewe!" he shouted.

Ember knocked in the door with another bang of his tail. Ryan, being little, ran under his legs, confusing him, and ran to Ben's cabin. Anakin limped along slowly. Ember came up to him. Anakin bolted to the door, even though that hurt his burnt foot very badly.

Ember felt bad he had failed so many times. _This is my last chance,_ he though. He decided to burn down the door, giving no time for anyone inside to escape. This did not work for two reasons. One, the door was made of rock, which can not catch on fire too easily. Two, the door was enforced with The Force. Ember gave up and stuck to guarding the door with all the other animals.

They were all in Ben's cabin now. Turtle, Tim, and Anakin were sick from eating so much hot sauce. The basket flew in and dumped some vegetables on the table.

"Don't eat them," said Tim. "That basket's evil. All the food we got from it was hot-sauced." He made a face.

"This doesn't smell the same as the stuff you ate," said Cathy. "It's fruity."

"Like Anni," Jacen said under his breath. No one heard him.

"I'm still not eating it!" said Tim. 

Ryan's stomach growled. "I'll eat it!" he said.

Sarah took a small nibble of the vegetables. "Tastes fruity, too. I think it's safe to eat," she said. 

The basket must have confused the hot sauce for the fruit punch. The bottles look the same," Cathy said.

So they ate the fruity vegetables. They didn't taste too good, but it was better than hot sauce. And it was better than nothing.


	16. Misty

****

Chapter 16: Misty

Whatever it was that was making the animals turn against them disappeared. The animals acted as if they had just woken up from a deep sleep, which they basically had. They stood, dazed, in front of Ben's cabin. 

"What happened?" asked Ember. 

"I don't know," said Froggy.

The people inside the cave had noticed that Ember had stopped pounding on the door, and Damien peeked out to look.

"What happened?" Snowy asked him. 

"I was just going to ask you that," Damien said. "I don't know."

"We've never experienced anything like that before," said Moonglow. It was the first time any humans in the forest had seen her. Damien though it looked like a Rapidash, the evolved form of his Ponyta. Everyone else thought it looked like a unicorn from a storybook.

Moonglow went in the door of the cave. The rest of the animals followed her, except for Ember, who waited outside because he was too big to fit in the cave with everyone else in there.

"Does anyone have an explanation for all this?" Moonglow asked. Everyone looked at her, stunned. No one had ever seen her before. She was really beautiful. She had a gorgeous, blonde mane and tail. The horn on her head was glowing bluish-white.

"Maybe," Ben said.

Everyone pried their eyes off Moonglow and looked at him. "What?" they asked.

"Ysalamari."

"Ys-what?" said Tim.

"Ysalamari."

"And what the heck would that be?" asked Sarah.

"Well, it's a creature that, well, let's just say, it's a Jedi's worst non-human enemy."

"What does this thing have to do with us? We're not Jedi," said Ember.

"Well, it often has effects on other non-human things. Anyway, I'm just guessing that because I feel one nearby."

"How can you feel one?" asked Cathy.

"You tend to feel weak and off-balance, and you can't use anything Force-related."

"Oh! No wonder I've been feeling kind of dizzy!" said Jacen. 

"Me, too," said Jaina. 

"Yeah," said Anakin, who really hadn't, but didn't want to sound stupid. 

"How did the ysal-whatever get in here in the first place?" asked one of the ducks.

"They were probably planted. They could be anywhere in this forest."

Ember heard a splash and turned around. Misty was back in the pond. She saw the huge dragon, screamed, and climbed up a tree, where she sat, hidden in the branches.

Ember turned back to the cabin.

"Who would want to plant evil creatures?" asked Lee.

"Lots of people. There are a ton of people who hate Jedi," said Jaina.

"I hate some Jedi," said Jacen. He looked menacingly at Anakin. Damien gave him a dirty look, and he turned away.

No one noticed a woman sneak into the forest. She had on a red cape. She looked around the forest. "Where is he?" she said to herself.

The woman went over to the cave where everyone was. "Where is Luke Skywalker?" she asked, stopping all conversation.

"Why do you want our uncle?" asked Jacen.

"Yeah! What are you doing here, and why do you want their uncle?" Damien said. He looked out the door and saw that the water was frozen.

The woman walked over to where Damien was sitting and lifted him up out of his chair without touching him. "Don't talk that way to me!" She lifted him up to the ceiling and dropped him, hard.

He stood up, an angry glare on his face. "You won't get away with that!" he shouted. "I don't know how you did it, but you're not going to get away with it!" 

He tried to grab her, but something was holding him back. 

"We don't want any violence just yet, Damien. Let me take care of Mara," said Ben.

Damien sat back down, but he was still glaring at Mara.

"Don't try anything you'll regret later, boy," Mara warned. "I see Obi-Wan here is doing a good job of holding you back." She looked at Ben. For once, Tim didn't laugh at the mention of Ben's real name. 

"Where is Luke Skywalker?" Mara asked again.

"He's not here, Mara, and I'm not going to tell you where he is. You want to kill him," said Ben.

"Then I will kill you, too. All of you!" Mara said. Everyone else in the room gasped.

Suddenly, Misty called from the tree. "Eww! What is this! Is it a bug? Gross! Get it away from me! It's awful! Help!" She picked a weird looking thing out of the tree and dropped it. 

"Stop that, girl! Leave those in there!" Mara called, angrily.

Misty loved annoying people and getting them mad, so she took another creature and dropped it out of the tree.

Mara lifted Misty out of the tree and put her on the ground. "Go away. Don't take anymore of those Ysalamari," she said.

Misty was on a roll. She was pissing Mara off. She went to another tree and took the Ysalamari out of them. 

Soon, the forest was rid of Ysalamari. Ben got up and "chased" Mara outside. He drew out his light saber. 

"Leave, and don't come back," he said. The forest animals stood behind him. They all glared at Mara. 

Mara knew she could kill Ben, but not with all these animals backing him up. She said, "I'll be back. You have not seen the last of me, Obi-Wan Kanobi. After I kill Skywalker, I'll be back for you." With that, she turned and left the forest.


	17. Squid in the Trees

****

Chapter 17: Squid in the Trees

Ben withdrew his light saber and put it in his belt. He went back into the cave. The animals went back to what they were doing before they were hypnotized. 

"What was that all about?" asked Tim.

"Mara Jade. She planted the Ysalamari to weaken us so she could kill someone. The person she wanted to kill isn't here, though. She just guessed he was," Ben explained.

"Why was she so upset about me killing those nasty little buggy things?" asked Misty, who had followed Ben into the cabin. 

"Mara was upset about you were taking her Ysalamari out of the tree because the Jedi are weaker and easier to kill when Ysalamari are around. As I explained, the Ysalamari make a Jedi unable to use The Force. Mara's weren't all that strong, so I was able to use it a little. Of course, Ysalamari are only helpful when they are living. Since they must eat constantly, taking them away from their food source, the trees, killed them," Ben said.

"Oh," said Misty.

"Go away, Misty. No one wants you here," said Damien.

"I think we owe Misty a thanks. After all, we might have been killed if she hadn't taken the…whatever out of the trees," said Sarah.

"No, that was just an empty threat. Mara couldn't kill all of us," said Ben.

"Well we still owe Misty our thanks," Sarah said.

"Thanks, Misty!" said everyone except Damien.

"Damien, you can at least say thanks!" said Cathy.

"No. I hate Misty, and I probably always will. It's her stupid friend's fault I lost a really good Pokemon!"

"What? You abandoned that Charmander! You would have lost it whether Ash came along or not!" shouted Misty.

"Do we really have to go through this?" asked Turtle.

"No, because I'm leaving!" Misty turned and stomped out of the cave and back into the pond to her own planet. 

"Great job, Damien. She'll probably never come back!" said Lee.

"Good! I don't want to see her again," Damien shouted.

Suddenly, they all heard a whirring sound coming from outside. Anakin and the twins looked at each other.

"The Falcon!" they shouted at the same time. Jaina and Jacen got up and ran outside. Anakin tried to, but his foot hurt from being burned, and he couldn't walk on it. 

"Wait for me!" he called. He hopped after them, but fell in the doorway.

"Anni, remember the wheelchair?" asked Jacen from halfway across the forest.

"Oh, yeah!" Anakin said. Ben had made him a wheelchair before. He got up, hopped over to it, climbed in, and went after the others. 

Ryan had no idea what a Falcon was, so he ran after them to see. So did Tim, Damien, Turtle, and Lee.

Han, Leia, Chewy, C3PO, and R2-D2 got off the Millennium Falcon. The three kids went over to their parents.

"Anni, why are you in a wheelchair?" Leia asked.

"I burnt my foot," Anakin replied.

"How?"

"I kicked the fire over on it."

"Why were you kicking the fire?"

"'Cause I was bored." Anakin wheeled away and zoomed around the forest, bumping into people and knocking them over.

Han went to talk to Jaina and Jacen. "So, what's been happening here?" he asked.

"This morning there were calamari in the trees," said Jaina.

"Squid?" said Han, confused.

"No, Dad. Calamari! Not squid!" said Jacen.

"Calamari _is_ squid, Jacen."

"No. It's this weird thing that lives in the trees and makes Jedi feel funny," said Jaina.

"Whatever," said Han. He went to go find Ben to see what his children were babbling about.

Ben came outside. "Oh, Ben. I was looking for you. I want to ask you about something," said Han.

"What?"

"The calamari in the tree."

Ben smiled. "Oh, they mean the Ysalamari in the tree." He explained about Mara Jade and her Ysalamari.

"Oh," said Han. "I also wanted to ask about something else."

"Yes?"

"Well, Luke said they should start being monitored for trained. He said he could do it, but it might be easier for you to do it."

"Yes. We talked about it. I could monitor them, but they will probably chose to be trained by their uncle, so it would be wasted time. However, if they choose for me to train them, they can start as soon as they're done being monitored. If they choose Luke, they'll have to wait a few months, so he can monitor them."

"Let's ask them what they want to do," suggested Han.

They went to ask. They got Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin together and explained what Ben had just explained to Han. 

"I want to start as soon as possible!" said Anakin.

"You would!" said Jacen.

"Boys!" warned Han.

"I think I would, too," said Jaina.

"Well I don't want to train alone. I'll go with Ben," said Jacen, reluctantly.

"Then you'll stay here. We'll come back when your monitoring time is up. Then you can chose to stay with Ben or go with Uncle Luke, _if_ you are trainable." Anakin had a strange feeling that his father wasn't talking about Jaina or Jacen. He gulped.

Then, Han, Leia, Chewy, C3PO, and R2-D2 left.


	18. Mara Strikes Again

****

Chapter 18: Mara Strikes Again

Forest life was soon back to normal. It would not stay that way for long.

Everyone noticed how often Ben looked west of the forest. There was a medium sized mountain about a mile away. There was a problem with this mountain. He could "see" it and sense it. He just couldn't put his finger on it. So, he decided to check it out.

Ben left without telling anyone where he was going, so a few hours later, Jaina asked, "Where's Ben?" and no one knew the answer. The next day, there was still no sign of him, and they were getting worried.

"Don't worry about him," Damien said, but he was slightly worried, too. He knew Ben could take care of himself, but what if something had happened to him?

And happened it had. Ben was unconcious at the bottom of the mountain. 

It started like this. There had been Ysalamari crawling all over the place. He had to climb up the mountain like a normal person. When he got to the top, he knew something was wrong, though he could not sense it. It was instinct. There wouldn't be Ysalamari around unless…

Mara peeked out from behind a boulder. Ben was sitting at the edge of the mountain, leaning slightly over, looking down. She crept up behind him and was about to push him, but he stood up. Mara ran back to her hiding place. Ben was wobbly with the imbalance and since he was standing so close to the edge, he fell.

There was a break in the Ysalamari's field, and so Ben could slow his fall a little near the end of the fall, but it was a mountain and a few hundred feet from the ground level. He hit the ground hard, and lay there, unconcious. 

The others back in the forest decided to form a search party. Misty had come back (much to Damien's disappointment) and decided to help them. Sarah (on Candy), Misty (on her bike), Jacen, and Jaina trooped into the forest. 

After a while, they stopped to take a rest. Jacen looked into the distance. The mountain was there, but it looked like there was a great fog covering it. "It sure is foggy over there," he said.

"What?" said Misty, looking where he was looking.

"Yeah," said Jaina.

"What are you guys talking about? It's perfectly clear," said Misty.

"Wait a second!" said Sarah. "Did you guys notice how Ben had been looking over there before he left?"

"Yeah," said Jaina and Jacen.

"Let's go have a look over there," Sarah suggested. So they did.

They walked around the base of the mountain. "I hope Ben didn't climb up there," commented Jacen. "I'm tired already."

"Hey, you guys! Over here!" shouted Jaina from around a cliff. "I found him!"

They ran around the side of the cliff. Ben was still unconscious from the fall. They carefully hoisted him onto Candy, and they rode back to the forest.

Back in the forest, Ben was lying on his bed. Sarah reported that he was hurt badly, but it wasn't life threatening. 

In a few hours, he woke up. He explained about the Ysalamari on the mountain. "Mara Jade is hiding out up there," he reasoned. "It's the only explanation."

In a few days, Luke had heard of Ben's fall. He flew down to Golda in his X-Wing. 

This was exactly what Mara Jade wanted. She lured Ben up with the Ysalamari. She had planned to push him off, but he had fallen off before she could get to him, hurting himself. If Ben were badly hurt, or even better, killed, Luke would come. And Luke was the person Mara Jade was after.

The reason Mara was after Luke was because he had killed her master. She had been his first hand. Now she was after Luke for ruining her life. 

Now Luke was in free range. But first, Mara had to make sure no one could save him. She sneaked into the forest that night and set up her invisible cage. It was entirely Force-proof, so they could not get out. 

One by one, Mara caught the people who came outside. Everyone did, except Ryan, who was content enough to play inside by himself. 

Soon, she had everyone except Luke, Ben and Ryan. Luke wondered why everyone had gone and not come back. He wandered outside. Mara caught him in the blink of an eye, because he was not expecting it. "I'll kill you later, Luke," she sneered, shoving him inside the cage. 

Ryan wandered outside. He saw Mara standing there, and knew that's where everyone had gone. He ran inside and got a long chain from his cabin. He crept up behind Mara and wrapped the chain tightly around her neck. In a few minutes, she had passed out from lack of oxygen. 

Pikablu popped out from underwater and helped Ryan figure out how to locate and open the invisible cage. Everyone was free.

"She should have killed me then," Luke said, laughing. Luke brought Mara back up to the mountain and left her there.


	19. You're Not, But You Are

****

Chapter 19: You're Not, But You Are

***Note:** Some of this chapter was written by M. Skywalker.*

Ben was healed in a few days, the only few days which could be counted as normal in a while. Damien went off and caught a new Pokémon. It was a small, egg-shaped creature with red and blue markings all over its off-white shell. Its little head poked out, along with its arms and legs. It was called Togepi.

When, he got back from the woods where he had caught it, he was in a bad mood. As you could have learned from his experiences with Charmander, he didn't like weak Pokemon. In fact, he hated them. He thought training Pokémon was a waste of time. All he wanted to do was win in battles with them. He though Togepi would be stronger, but he was wrong. It was so young, it could barely walk. 

Damien rode into the forest on his Ponyta and dropped Togepi off. It rolled over and crashed into the pond rocks. Pikablu went over to it.

Damien rode over to his cave and withdrew Ponyta. He put the Pokéball on his bed. Anakin was playing with his food, trying to make Jaina and Jacen laugh.

"Stop acting stupid," Damien said, angrily.

"I'm not stupid!" shouted Anakin.

"You're not stupid, but you're stupid!" said Jacen, meaning that Anakin was not actually stupid, he just acted like he was.

Damien scowled at him. He had heard almost the same sentence before, from Ben. _Must be coincidence, _he thought. Anakin jumped up out of his wheel chair, flipped, and landed back in it. He did it five times, then finally messed up and fell on his head.

"Anni, are you okay?" asked Damien, not too concerned.

"Sure," said Jaina for him. "He's not well," she said pointing at his head, signaling he was crazy, "but he's well." She meant physically.

Damien went outside and sat on the "deer rocks". Turtle and Tim were swimming. 

Luke was standing in the middle of the forest, mumbling something under his breath. Anakin came outside. "What are you doing?" he asked his uncle.

"I'm talking to Anakin," Luke replied. 

"How? He just came out here. You were talking before he came out," Damien said.

"Oh, not Anakin, but Anakin," Luke said, then went back to mumbling. He was talking about his father and Anakin's grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, whom Anakin had been named after.

"Am I missing something?" Damien asked.

"You're not missing something, but you're missing something. So am I," commented Anakin. He turned and went back inside. 

Damien was getting really annoyed. He was so annoyed, he started to freeze the water again. 

"Is the water getting cold to you?" asked Tim.

"Yeah," said Turtle. 

"Oh, well. No reason we should get out."

Ben came outside. He could get around now, because he had healed himself using The Force. He was tired, though, so he had to rest a lot. 

"You're freezing," he said. "You're not freezing, but you're freezing."

That pushed Damien over the edge. He had heard too many of these Jedi sayings. The water froze hard as rock. 

"Help! I'm stuck!" shouted Tim.

"I guess we should have gotten out," said Turtle, sadly.

They could not get out of the solid ice, and Damien was not changing. They stayed there all night.

The next morning, Damien woke up. He had cooled off bit. The water was slushy. The boys got out as quickly as possible. They went to Ember, who warmed them up with this flame. 

Damien stood by the edge of the water. Anakin raced around in his wheelchair. He knocked into Damien, pushing him into the water. Before he could get out, he froze the water and was trapped. 

Being so angry at being in the water, he couldn't unfreeze the water. He stayed.

Back in their cabin, Ben was monitoring the young Jedi. He had to figure out whom to train. He was pretty sure he would only be training two, Jaina and Jacen, but he had to give Anakin a fair chance. For once, Anakin behaved almost normally. He really wanted to be trained. It wasn't worth a trick to be teased by his brother and sister when they were Jedi and he was not. 

Days later, Damien was still trapped. He took a deep breath. He was really cold. He tried to keep his temper. He finally got out of the water. He didn't think of drying off, though. The water was gone, but the coldness remained. 

Ben, Anakin, Jaina, and Jacen were talking. 

"I've decided to train all of you," Ben said.

"Yay!" Anakin shouted.

"However," Ben continued, "one step out of line and you can kiss your training good bye."

"Ha, ha!" said Jacen.

"That goes for all of you, not just Anni," Ben said.

"Ha, ha!" said Anakin. Ben gave him a look.

"When do we start?" asked Jaina.

"Now!" shouted Anakin.

"Good idea," said Ben.

As Ben strode through to the back of the cave, his bed opened up and three things floated out of it. Ben stopped at the back of the cave and the three objects from his bed landed at his feet. 

Anakin, not willing to risk doing something bad, ran up and sat with his back against the stone. Jaina, who was tired, lay down to get some rest before she went. Jacen picked up an object from the floor. It was a silver handle with a red button on it. Ben reached out, took it, and turned it around so it was facing the opposite direction. Jacen looked at Ben quizzically. 

"What'd you do that for?" Just as Jacen said that, he noticed a silver handle that looked a little like the one he was holding, hanging on Ben's belt.

"Incase you turned it on," Ben said, like it was obvious. 

Jacen realized what he was holding. Jedi-in-training weren't allowed to use the real thing of course, but it was a training saber, almost as good. Jacen pressed the button and watched as a blue stick of light came out of the handle. 

Even though Anakin knew that Jacen was holding a training saber, and that it would only give him a burn, and a burn hurt considerably less than Damien, he slid over a few feet. _Jacen could be trusted, _he thought, _but I don't trust him enough to stay within range. _Just then, one of the other objects rose. Anakin wasn't sure if Ben was controlling it, or if it was controlling itself. 

Jaina watched as the ball shot off energy bolts. Her twin brother wasn't doing a good job of blocking them_. 24, no 25 bolts and he hasn't blocked anything, _Jaina thought. _I hope I do better._

Jacen, you're not using The Force. Don't attack with frustration. Ben sounded strangely patient, despite the force behind his thoughts.

Jacen was startled. _I'm trying! _he thought-snapped, _but you interrupted my concentration._

Ben reached down with The Force and turned off the ball. The he reached down and picked up a bucket.

"Why'd you do that?" Jacen protested.

For an answer, Ben put the bucket on Jacen's head.

"Hey! Now I can't see!"

"Your eyes can deceive you, The Force cannot," Ben said.

Jacen sighed. He wasn't too sure about this. He felt lonely; he couldn't communicate with anyone, well, not the way he was used to. He tried to picture his sister's face. Keyword: tried. Jacen then saw everything around him in detail. He was about to ask about the bucket, he didn't see it anywhere, but then he realized that he couldn't see inanimate objects that well, and that he, his sister, and Anakin were glowing. Ben was almost too bright to look at, but as soon as Jacen did look at Ben, he could stand it. He couldn't explain or understand it. It's likely that no one could. Not even Ben. 

He saw Ben reach over to the ball. The ball had ripples for stands, and a brightly glowing switch. Ben flicked the switch, and the balls caused ripples as it started to move. 

__

That's a talent I certainly didn't expect, Ben thought-said. 

"What?" Jacen got hit. "I didn't see that at all, Ben."

__

That's because you're a selector. That, what you are in, is a talent that helps you select people to train. It won't select weapons and things like that. Most people have to learn to do that.

"Well, how do I…" Jacen began, not sure how to end. 

__

Stop wondering about who is strongest in The Force and wonder about what you are doing.

Okay, Jacen thought cautiously. Jacen felt a ripple coming towards his shoulder. _A ripple? I'm not swimming, _Jacen thought. He wasn't looking for ripples, he was looking for lasers. The ripple hit him. It hurt. _The ripples cause the ball to shoot, _Jacen thought. _Or the lasers cause the ripples. Oh, well. Either way, the ripples accompany the bolts. _Jacen felt a ripple headed at his chest. He pulled the training saber down and neatly blocked the bolt. He deflected the next ten bolts, then he lost his concentration and Ben, sensing this, reached out through The Force and turned off the ball.

__

Are you okay? he asked.

Jacen, who was so disturbed he didn't realize that Ben was think-speaking, said, "I'm fine," in a voice dripping with sarcasm. 

Anakin looked at him funny. He had heard a sarcastic sounding, "I'm fine." Ben only raised an eyebrow. Jacen tore off the bucket. His eyes were wide, and all the color had drained from his face. "I…I...I."

"What?" shouted Jaina and Anakin in union. Ben, however, knew that Jacen would talk when he was ready.

"I…I saw Uncle Luke…and," Jacen whispered into the cave, "and…and…and Mara J…J…Jade."

"What happened?" prompted Jaina.

"M…M…M…Mara k…k...killed U…Uncle Luke." The three children looked at Ben to see his reaction to the news. Ben looked pleased.

"Two things," he said. "Okay, three, but one is a question. What color was your uncle's light saber?"

"Blue."

"Alright. That was the future, the future is unset, in perpetual motion. I saw that vision also, but I saw two of your uncle, Jourus C'boath, and Mara. I felt the buzzing in the force for Luke, and I felt his relief when Mara 'killed' him."

"Relief?" Jaina practically screamed. "How can, and why should, he be relieved that he is dead?"

"The Luke who is killed was in service of Jourus C'boath. He was a clone of your uncle."

"Who is Jourus C'boath? Clone?" Jacen was full of questions.

"Clones feel compelled to use clones," came Ben's cryptic answer.

"Oh, well. Hey Jacen, I think it's my turn now," Jaina said to her listless twin.

"Oh, right, here," Jacen said as he handed her the training saber. "Good luck. I think you'll need it."

"Thanks. I think I will, too." Jaina replied.

__

Stop thinking that way, Jaina. Jaina laughed.

"Ben," she said, "you can't control how I think."

"Uh, Jaina," Anakin said, confused. He didn't understand where Jaina's words came from. He hadn't heard Ben say anything.

Jaina didn't reply. Ben had turned on the ball. She saw the bolt. She brought the training saber into position to block that one too late. In fact the next one had already been fired. Jaina saw it milliseconds before it hit her arm. She sighed and flicked off the training saber. The ball paused at the deactivation of the saber. "I can't do this," Jaina said.

"Why not?" Ben asked as he placed the bucket over her head. "You just need to calm down and focus."

Jaina sighed. She felt strangely cut off from the world. She wondered where the ball was. All of a sudden, Jaina felt water flowing through her. She wasn't surprised. She hadn't known what to expect, but it felt she had known what it felt like all along. She felt something, and unconsciously moved her training saber up to deflect it. Without realizing it, Jaina blocked bolts for two minutes. Then she collapsed. Well, she didn't collapse, but she sat down and took the bucket off her head. Her eyes betrayed the fact that she was still lost in thought. 

Anakin jumped up and grabbed the training saber. It was on. He hit himself with it because Jaina just let go. He almost hit Ben, too, if you can "almost" hit a Jedi. The blade stopped inches short of Ben. 

All at once, a shot was fired. Anakin jumped. He didn't jump to avoid the bolt; he jumped because the bolt had hit him. Fifty shots, one bucket, and much advice later, Anakin blocked ten shots. 

Damien walked over just in time to see Anakin getting hit again. He started laughing loudly. Anakin got mad. Ben said nothing, but, at once, the training saber turned off and flew to his outstretched hand. 

Damien was still laughing.

"Time to stop," said Ben. "That's enough for today. Jacen, go set the table."

"Do I gotta?" whined Jacen.

"Yes, you…'gotta,'" said Ben. Jacen went, muttering under his breath.

The others went to help him, and Damien went to bed. He was cold and was starting to not feel so good.

When dinner was ready a half an hour later, Damien was asleep. 

"Isn't Damien coming to dinner?" asked Jaina.

"He's sleeping," explained Ben.

"Why don't we wake him up?" asked Anakin.

Ben projected a thought into Damien's head. _Wake up, Damien._

Damien stirred and sat up, groggily. "What?" he asked, sleepily.

"Want dinner?" asked Jacen.

"No, not really," Damien said, crawling back into his bed and falling asleep again.

A minute later, the water was frozen again.


	20. Why?

****

Chapter 20: Why?

"Damien!" Sarah yelled, walking into the cave. "Take your bad mood someplace else!"

"Huh?" said Damien, waking up and sitting up.

"You were asleep?" Sarah asked, amazed. "Sorry!"

"It's okay."

"What about his bad mood?" asked Anakin.

"He froze up the water again!" Sarah accused.

"Not me. I was asleep."

"Then who was it?" asked Sarah.

"I don't know. Could you leave me alone? I'm not feeling so great."

"Sorry." Sarah left. The rest of them finished eating. Ben told them to go outside and let Damien sleep. They did.

The person freezing up the water was a boy named Josh. Josh was one of Damien's friends, had heard he had left the planet, and was looking for him on the nearby planets. He saw Pikablu and knew that there was _somebody_ with Pokemon around there. He decided to ask someone if they knew Damien.

He walked up to the nearest person, but he didn't have to say anything before Cathy said, "You want Damien? In there," she said, pointing to his cave.

"Uh, thanks," said Josh. He went inside the cave. He had a belt full of Pokéballs, which is how Cathy had guessed he was looking for Damien.

Damien was facing away from the door. He was asleep, so Josh woke him. 

"Who is it?" asked Damien, slightly annoyed.

"Your best friend," said Josh.

"Tim?" asked Damien. 

"Tim?" said Josh, but Damien had fallen back asleep. "I have to find this 'Tim' person," said Josh. He went to Cathy and asked where Tim was.

"You know Tim, too? I think he's in Lee's cabin right now." Cathy pointed to Lee's cabin.

Josh walked into Lee's cabin.

"Can I help you?" asked Lee.

"Which one of you is Tim?" asked Josh.

"I am," said Tim.

"Come with me," instructed Josh. Tim looked at Lee, shrugged, and followed Josh out of the enchanted forest.

"You're Damien's best friend," Josh informed him.

"I am? Cool! Anyway what does that have to do with you?"

"_I'm_ Damien's best friend. I think we have a problem here."

"What?"

"We can't both be Damien's best friend."

"Why not?"

"Because!" said Josh. With that, he swung back and punched Tim in the face, missing his nose slightly. Josh was very weak, so it didn't hurt Tim much, but it did surprise him and made him lose his balance.

Josh left Tim on the ground and ran back into Damien's cave.

"Who's your best friend now?" he asked. "I punched Tim's lights out!" (A slight exaggeration.)

"You punched Tim?" asked Damien, fully awake. 

"Yeah! Aren't I great?"

"You know what, Josh?" asked Damien, getting to his feet. Josh shook his head. Damien punched him where he had tried to hit Tim, in the nose. It started bleeding. "Never punch my friends," Damien warned. He picked up Josh by the shirt collar and threw him out of the forest. Josh quickly got up and raced off.

"Now I know why I was leader of my gang back home," Damien laughed. He went back to bed. 

Meanwhile, Anakin was starting something that was going to get him into a lot of trouble, but since he had already started his training, he had no reason to be good. 

"Anakin, leave me alone! You're annoying!" Jacen said.

"Why?"

"Because you're annoying!"

"Why?"

"Because you are!"

"Why?"

"Stop it!"

"Why?"

Jacen got up and walked away, not wanting to deal with Anakin's stupidity right now, or any time for that matter.

Anakin had succeeded in making Jacen mad, so he decided to try another person.

"Hey, Anni!" Tim called. "You're not doing anything. Can you help me?"

"Why?"

"Because this wood is heavy."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I think it's something about density and stuff. Can you help me?"

"Why?"

"Forget it," Tim muttered.

Anakin was always willing to show off, but never to do any work. He decided to try his "why" trick on Ben.

"Anni, you should have helped Tim," said Ben.

"Why?"

"It's the right thing to do."

"Why?"

"Being helpful is something you need to learn."

"Why?"

Ben put his hand in front of Anakin's mouth. He used The Force to keep him mouth shut. "That should keep you quiet."

But it didn't. Anakin projected his "why's" into people's heads, so that they were not only annoyed, they were confused. He began to do this to Jaina and Jacen the most, until they had had enough of it, and put a "bubble" around his head, so he couldn't project any thoughts.

He was really mad then. He went into his cave. He was so mad, he began to knock over things. He knocked over the table and every chair. He messed up the beds and kicked dishes off the counter. He finally kicked Pikablu and Togepi's cage. 

Damien was a sound sleeper, but not that sound. He heard the noise Anakin was making, but didn't care. He pulled the blankets over his head and tried to sleep again. He did. 

Anakin was still really mad, so he started stomping all over the place. He jumped about three feet in the air, and crashed down on whatever happened to be under him. But, he jumped too far. Even he didn't mean to do what he had just done.

He got up, stunned. He had jumped on Damien. _Maybe he won't notice. _Anakin thought. He was wrong. 

Damien sat up, rubbing his chest where Anakin had landed. He glared at Anakin. Anakin gave one of his innocent smiles. It had no effect. Damien picked Anakin up, just as he had done with Josh. "Never do that again," he sneered.

Anakin nodded nervously. Damien dropped him in a crumpled heap on the floor. "Now, clean up," he said sternly. He gave Anakin a small kick with his foot. He went back to bed, and Anakin went outside. 

Anakin refused to clean up, and since Damien was in a bad enough mood, Jacen decided to clean for him. It took very little effort, anyway. 


	21. School Time

****

Chapter 21: School Time

A few days later, Damien was feeling better. He was still mad at Anakin, since he had jumped on him again the next day, but he was letting him, along with Jaina and Jacen, look at his Pokémon book. They were looking at the pictures.

"Damien, what does that say?" called Jaina, holding up the book and pointing to a word. 

"Charizard," Damien explained.

A few minutes later, they asked another word, then another and another.

"Can't you guys read?" asked Damien.

"No," answered Jacen. 

"We never went to school," said Anakin.

"Hmm…" thought Damien. He went to go find Tim.

Tim was swimming, racing with Pikablu. Of course, he lost every time, but it was still fun. "Tim!" called Damien.

"Coming!" said Tim, swimming to the side and jumping out. He was immediately dry. "What's up?"

"Did you know that neither Anakin, Jaina, or Jacen can read?" asked Damien.

"So?"

"Don't you think they should learn? I mean, they should be starting school around now; they're six and seven. Isn't there a school around here?"

"Yeah, there's a school in Gifek, about five miles away."

"They should go there. Plus, it'll get them off our hands for a while." Damien smiled wickedly.

"Okay, we'll take them there tomorrow. They shouldn't have started school yet." Tim stepped outside the forest. "Seeing that there is a ton of leaves on the ground, I'd say it's around the time school should be starting."

"The only problem is, how do we get there?"

"The car."

"What? You have a car?"

"Yeah. I've had it since we got here. I wonder if it still works." He walked out of the forest and to the place where the car was hidden. "Uh, oh," he said.

The car was very old. It had been there for over three generations, of course. Tim went over to it. He forced the door open. He turned the ignition. The car wouldn't start.

"I suppose we have to get another car," said Damien. Tim got out of the car. 

"Let's ride up to town and see if we there's another way to get them there."

Damien got on Ponyta, Tim got on Candy, and they rode off to town. When they got there, Tim saw that it had changed a lot since he had last been there. Where the orphanage had been, there was a large hospital. It had replaced the old clinic. 

There was also a medium sized train station. It had a sign in the front it said Interplanetary Train Station. 

There was a small bank in town, too. "Hey! I wonder if…no that isn't still around..." Tim started.

"What?" Damien asked.

"Well, I wonder if our parents left us any money when they died. But it wouldn't still be here."

"It's worth a try." The two boys went into the bank. When Tim said his parents' names, they found an account. There was a ton of money left in his, Sarah's, and Ryan's names!

"We could buy a new car!" Tim shouted. People in the bank looked at him like he was crazy. (Or maybe it was Damien's blue hair that made people stare.)

They walked around town until they saw a car parked outside a house. It had a sign that said it was for sale. They walked up to the door of the house and rang the bell.

An old man answered the door. "What do you kids want?" he asked.

"We want your car," Tim said.

"I'm charging a thousand dollars for it," said the man, overlooking their obvious ages.

"Okay," said Tim. He pulled the money from the bank, after inspecting the car. 

"Don't you need a license?" Damien asked.

"Oh, yeah."

He went to the bank again. He got his birth certificate out of the safe deposit box. They walked over to the police station, but the policeman didn't care much about the fact that Tim still looked twelve when he should have been in his seventies. They gave Tim a license. Then he went back to the man with the car, bought it, and drove it back to the forest, and Damien rode Candy, because she could not be put inside of a Pokéball. 

The next day, the twins woke up and ate breakfast as usual. Tim and Damien had told Ben their plan, but Ben had not told them. (Ryan was also going, and couldn't understand why he was being woken up so early.) When they were done eating, Ben said, "Wake up your brother, you're going soon."

"Going where?" Jacen asked. 

"To school," Ben said simply.

Anakin woke up at the mention of school. "Yay!" he yelled. He quickly ate his breakfast and ran out the door, where Tim and Ryan were waiting for them in the new car. 

They drove off to school. They had to drive very slowly, because of all the trees, so it took over twenty minutes to get into town. When they got there, kids were going into the school.

Tim walked over to a kid. "How long have you been in school?" he asked casually. 

"This is our first day, stupid! Are you from this planet? Some people are so stupid," said the kid, walking off to join his friends.

"Good," said Tim. He let them out of the car, and they went into school. Gifek was a very small town, so only one class was needed for each grade. The four of them went into Ms. Hodpow's room.

Ms. Hodpow was standing by the door handing out a test. "It's to see how much you know," she said when the four of them looked scared. 

There was no seating chart, so they all sat down at the front table. Other kids filed into the room and began their tests. Including them, there were eleven kids in the class. 

When everyone was finished with their tests, Ms. Hodpow collected them and told them to talk quietly while she graded them.

The room was set up in a normal fashion for a first grade class. A chalkboard was at the front of the room. There were three tables of four. Two were at the back of the room, and one was at the front. 

At the back, left table, there were four girls. One, who appeared to be the leader, was wearing a pink dress and hat. She had blonde hair. She was named Julia. The girl next to her was wearing a purple dress. She had bright orange hair, and her name was Ida. The girl sitting across from Julia was wearing a yellow dress, no hat, and had black hair. Her name was Mary. The last girl at the table was wearing a blue dress, had a blue hat, had brown hair, and was named Joanne. It seemed that it was "in" to wear dresses and hats.

The other back table had three occupants, two girls and a boy. The boy, Roger, had dark hair, and a blue hat. He was wearing a blue sweatshirt and jeans. Next to him was his twin sister, Lisa. Lisa looked just like her brother, except her hair, like every other girl's in the class, was shoulder length. Across from Lisa was Amy, a girl with a pink and white dress, blonde hair, and a pink hat.

Ms. Hodpow was a tall lady. She looked very kind. She had black hair pulled into a ponytail. She went to the front of the chalkboard and announced, "Everyone did poorly on their tests. I will need to talk to your kindergarten teachers about this. Now, we will start reading so that we can catch you up to were you should be." She began to hand out books to everyone. The books were entitled, The Hobbit. If you've ever seen this book, you know how think and complex it is. If you expect a first grader to read this book, you're loony.

Ms. Hodpow glanced at her class list. "Amy," she said, picking a random name of the chart, "read the first paragraph."

"How?" Amy asked.

"What do you mean how?" the teacher screamed. "You went to kindergarten! You should know how to read!"

"We only learned our letters in kindergarten," Lisa piped up. 

"I'm not teaching a bunch of idiots who are in first grade and can't even read yet!" Ms. Hodpow screamed at the top of her lungs. She pressed the call button on the wall near the door.

"Yes?" said the secretary.

"I quit!" shouted Ms. Hodpow.

The secretary hung up for being yelled at, and Ms. Hodpow ran out of the room, slamming the door behind her. 

The children talked excitedly in their seats until the principal came in a few minutes later. "Children," he said, "since your teacher has left, and we have no sub on such short notice, you are all dismissed now." The class cheered, and the kids ran out the door. 

Since Anakin, Jaina, Jacen, and Ryan weren't able to contact Tim to come and pick them up, they decided to walk home. By the time they got there, it was about time for them to be home. 

Although everyone wondered how they got home at the time school was supposed to be let out, they didn't ask questions. The next day, the four would go back to school as if nothing had happened.

Tim dropped them off at the door. They walked into their classroom and sat down at the front table. There was no sign of a teacher. Everyone was in their seats and the bell rang signaling the start of the school day. A teacher walked briskly in the door. Anakin, Jaina, Jacen, and Ryan gasped when they saw who it was.


	22. The School of Evil

****

Chapter 22: The School Of Evil

It was Mara Jade.

Mara put her briefcase on the ground next to the board. She pulled out some books and handed them out.

"Gather up your things," she boomed, "the first thing we will do is find out everyone's names. You?"

"Wyan."

"Alright, Wyan."

"Not Wyan, Ryan!" Ryan said, finally pronouncing his name right.

"Good," said Mara. "Next!"

__

I better think of a fake name. She might recognize a weird name like Anakin. "Nick," he decided.

"You?"

"Jane."

"Next!"

"Jack."

She went around the whole room. Then she said, "Next we get a seating chart. Front table: Ryan, Nick, and Lisa. Back left: Julia, Jack, Joanne, and Mary. Last table: Jane, Roger, Amy, and Ida. Everyone happy?"

There was a chorus of no's. "Too bad. This is how you will sit as long as I am teacher."

There was a click at the door. A girl wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and a dark blue hat walked in. She looked strangely familiar, although they had never seen her before. 

"Name?" Mara barked.

"Molly," the girl said quietly. 

"Sit next to Nick," Mara said pointing, "and remove your hat!"

Other girls in the class removed their hats. "Do I have to?" asked Molly. 

"Of course."

"Please don't make me! I don't want to!"

"Remove it, or I will remove you!"

Molly had never been a bad student, and she always followed directions, so she removed her hat.

Everyone gaped at Molly's hair. It was blue. 

"Ha, ha!" laughed Julia. "That girl has blue hair!"

Molly looked down at the ground. "That's enough, Julia," said Mara. "If you don't want to be embarrassed, Molly, don't wear dye in your hair tomorrow."

"Dye? For hair?" Molly looked confused.

"Don't act smart with me, young lady! You will not wear dye tomorrow!" Mara shouted. Molly nodded. There was no point in arguing. Who would believe her hair was naturally this way?

"Teacher!" Roger called.

"Do not call me teacher! I have a name!"

"That's what I was asking about. You never told us your name," Roger stated.

"My name is Ms. Jade. There is another one of my rules; you will address me after every time you speak to me. You will not call me teacher, either ma'am or Ms. Jade! Understand?" Everyone nodded.

"Now we will start with a book. It is called Go to Bed. We will each read a word. Who wants to start?" Only Molly raised her hand.

"Molly?"

"The first word is, Dad, Ms. Jade."

"Next?" Again, Molly raised her hand. 

"No, Molly, I'm not calling on you again. I believe in being fair, so you can't go until everyone has gone. Nick? How about you?"

Anakin didn't know the answer, so he said, "I don't know."

"Sound it out!"

"I can't."

"Don't you even know your letters?"

"No," said everyone.

Mara sighed and then told everyone the letters and the sound it makes. 

When they got to the letter J, Mara said, "This is the letter J." She drew it on the board. "It makes a sound as in Jedi." She paused. "Does anyone know what a Jedi is?"

Molly raised her hand. "Since this is not really related to what we are doing, I suppose you can answer, Molly," Mara said.

"I think Jedi are those mythical people who can control things with their minds. They can read minds, too. I don't think they really exist," Molly explained.

"You are right, but wrong. They exist. In fact there is a particular one I am looking for. His name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. He lives somewhere on this planet. I know I have been there before, but for some reason I can't remember where that was. If any one of you knows his whereabouts, tell me now!"

Jaina, Jacen, Anakin, and Ryan looked nervously at each other, but even Anakin had the mind not to say anything. 

Mara got on with the lesson, and soon it was time for lunch. Molly sat by herself at a table. Jaina went over to join her, and the other three followed Jaina.

"Hi," said Jaina. She introduced herself and the others, with their fake names, of course. 

"Hi," Molly said glumly. "I suppose you came over here to tease me about my hair."

"No," Jaina assured her, "we have already seen someone with blue hair before, so it's not that fascinating."

Molly looked up from her tray. "Who do you know that has blue hair?" she asked curiously.

"Someone who lives with us has blue hair," said Anakin.

"Oh. He's probably from my planet. Maybe I know him!"

"Oh, you know him; he's your brother," Jaina said casually.

"How did you…?" Molly started.

"You look exactly like him!" said Jaina.

"Oh yeah. People always tell me that. But they never say I look like my sister. I wonder why."

"You have a sister?" Jacen asked.

"Yeah, two of them."

"Two? Yuck! I can hardly stand one!" Anakin said. Jaina gave him a dirty look.

"What do your sisters look like?" asked Jaina.

"Well, my older sister, Cara, has blond hair and green eyes. My baby sister, Caitlin, has no hair and black eyes, like Damien."

"That would explain it. They look nothing like you! Except for the green eyes," said Jacen, matter-of-factly.

Then, they went out to recess. The boys played kickball with Roger and some second graders, and Jaina and Molly sat on the swing set.

"Molly," Jaina started, "can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot," answered Molly.

"If you live on Pokemon, why do you come here for school? Are there no schools on Pokemon?"

Molly laughed. "No, there are schools on Pokemon. I was too smart for my grade, so they told me to move up to a much higher grade. But I didn't want to leave all my friends, so they told me I could go to school on another planet so that I wouldn't be ahead. That's why I know all the answers."

"There's only one school on your planet?"

"Yeah, in Viridian City. I live in Cerulean City. There's one city in between, Pewter, but I used to take a bus to school. It was a water bus."

No one spoke for a little while, until Jaina said, "Do you know anyone by the name of Josh?"

"Oh, no! Don't tell me Josh is here!"

"He's not. You know him?"

"Unfortunately. He's my brother's best friend!"

"Not anymore. Do you know Misty?"

"She's my next-door neighbor."

"Oh." Just then, Mara called her class back into the room. They sat down at their desks. Mara taught them how to add and subtract. Then they worked on reading the book they had tried to read at the beginning of class again. Then the bell rang for them to go home. 

Tim came and picked them up. Molly looked worried. "What's wrong?" Jaina asked just before getting into the car. 

"I don't know if my sister will know when to get me. She'll be in school now, so I can't call her."

"Why don't you come with us?" Tim offered. Molly accepted and squeezed into the car.

Tim drove very slowly back to the forest. When they got back, they all went into their cabins to start their homework, which Mara had given them a ton of. Molly followed Jaina into her cabin.

Damien was sitting on his bed. When Molly came in, he looked up. "Oh, hi, Molly," he said casually, and looked back down. There was a short silence. Damien looked back up. "Molly? What are you doing here?"

Molly and Jaina laughed. "She goes to our school, Damien," Jaina told him. 

"Yeah, she's in our class!" said Anakin. 

"Cool," said Damien. He went back to what he was doing. 

In a few minutes, Cara, directed by one of the Jedi, came into the forest. She was older than Damien was, fourteen. She was riding a large bird called Fearow. 

Molly took a Pokéball from her pocket and threw it. A huge dragon popped out. She hopped onto its back and she and Cara flew off. 


	23. Ms. Jade Finally Figures It Out

****

Chapter 23: Ms. Jade Finally Figures It Out

It was Monday of the following week. Jaina, Jacen, Anakin, and Ryan were worried because Molly hadn't shown up yet, and they'd been in class for almost twenty minutes. Ms. Jade was reviewing numbers when they heard a click at the door. Molly quickly walked in and sat down in her seat. 

"Why are you late?" barked Ms. Jade.

A boy popped his head in the door. He had a blue shirt and pants, and spiky brown hair. "Her train just came in. She's excused," he said.

"Hat!" Ms. Jade shouted.

The boy, knowing she had blue hair, said, "She, uh, has a cold, so she doesn't have to take it off. See you, Molly!" He left the classroom.

"Who was that?" Anakin asked Molly quietly.

"That's my sister's friend, Gary," Molly explained.

"Molly! Why are you late?" Ms. Jade asked.

"It takes two and a half hours to get here."

"Get up earlier."

"The earliest train comes at 4:40. That's the one I take. Today it was really late. I can't help it." 

"Find another way to school. And remove your hat!"

Molly took her hat off. Ms. Jade had realized that Molly's hair was permanent, but she still liked embarrassing her.

Class continued as normal. At the end of the day, Tim drove up. The four piled into the car. "Need a ride, Molly?" asked Tim.

"Yeah, I guess. Gary hasn't shown up yet." Molly got into the car. 

"Why is Gary picking you up and dropping you off?" asked Jaina.

"My sister's sick, so she asked him to."

Back in the forest, Molly waited for Gary to come. He did, but he was late. 

The next day, Gary dropped Molly off at school, twenty minutes late again, but this time Ms. Jade was too busy to get mad. Jaina, Jacen, Anakin, and Ryan had arrived around the same time.

That day was a nightmare. The three Jedi-in-training were all complaining that Mara was picking on them too much that day. 

Near the end of the day, Ms. Jade walked over to Anakin's desk. "Nick, I'll need your parents' phone number. I need to tell them to get you here on time tomorrow."

"I don't live with my parents," Anakin answered.

"Well then, who do you live with?

"Ben," he managed to squeak.

"And how old is Ben?" 

"Twelve."

"That's not legal. Who else do you live with?"

"Damien."

"How old is he?"

"Twelve."

"Hmm. That's not legal. Why don't I call your parents? Tell me their phone number!"

"I don't know it."

"Why not?"

"Because." Anakin eyed the door worriedly.

There was a long pause, during which Ms. Jade muttered something unintelligible. Jaina heard her say, "Last time I saw Obi-Wan Kenobi, he was twelve…"

"Maybe because they don't live on this planet?" Ms. Jade suggested.

"Yes."

"Of course they don't, which is why you live with Obi-Wan Kenobi!"

Anakin looked as if he had just been frozen, except his mouth was open wide. "H-h-how did you…"

"Stand up, Anakin Solo!" Anakin stood up. "And Jaina and Jacen, too!" They stood up. The rest of the class looked at them, confused. What was going on? "Come here!" shouted Ms. Jade. They did.

"Tell me where Obi-Wan is!"

"Not until you put down the Ysalamari field," said Jaina.

"I never put it down!"

"Then we won't tell you where he is," said Jacen.

"Fine!" Ms. Jade put down the field. "Better? Now where is he?"

"He just left the planet," Jacen lied.

"Where is he then?" Ms. Jade shouted.

The bell for school to end rang. Anakin bolted out of the door before Ms. Jade could catch him. "Anakin! Come back here!" she shouted, but Anakin ran down the hall and out to the car. In a few minutes, Jaina and Jacen were able to get free, too.

Ryan, Anakin, and Tim were waiting in the car. "Step on it!" shouted Jaina.

"Molly?" Tim asked. Molly looked around quickly, then got in the car. Tim "stepped on it".

Gary stood by the edge of the forest, an hour after they had gotten back. He was even later than he had been the day before. He asked Turtle where Molly was. She was inside Sarah's cabin. Gary went in.

"Oh, hi, Gary," said Molly, "Late as usual!"

"Shut up," said Gary. He looked very pale.

"Are you okay, Gary? You don't look so good," said Molly, getting up out of her chair and picking up her backpack. 

Gary plopped down into her chair. "I'm fine," he said.

"Let's go, Gary!" said Molly impatiently. Gary didn't answer. "Gary! Come on!" she yelled. "Uh, oh."

Sarah looked over from talking to Cathy. Gary was slumped over in the chair. "He doesn't look too good," commented Cathy.

"Wake up!" Molly shouted. Gary didn't move.

Sarah helped him into Tim's bed. 

"Is he okay?" asked Molly.

"I don't know. Ask your brother to take you home, Molly. This guy's not leaving anytime soon," Sarah said.

"I'll go," said Cathy. Molly and Cathy left. Damien took Molly home.

"Dinnertime!" Snowy called, a little later. She usually made food for the five in the cave. They ran inside and sat down. 

"Turtle! Time for dinner!" called Cathy.

"I guess I'll go eat dinner, too," said Lee.

"Yeah, our dinner should be done by now, too, " said Tim.

They went into their cabins or caves. "What's for dinner, Sarah?" asked Tim. "I'm starving!"

"Dinner? Oh, we're having…biscuits!" Sarah ran out to the food storage and got three biscuits. 

__

We never had biscuits for dinner before, only breakfast, though Tim. He shrugged and sat down at the table.

They ate dinner then went back outside to play. Sarah sat down by the fire and stared at the wall dreamily. 

Ryan and Tim came in for a drink. "My cup is diwty!" Ryan shouted.

"Oh, I must have forgotten to wash it after dinner," said Sarah. She picked the cup up, walked to the door with it, then put it back in the table.

"It's still diwty!" Ryan shouted.

"Oops," said Sarah.

"Sarah, are you feeling okay?" asked Tim.

"What?" Sarah said spaceily.

Tim sighed and went to the pond to wash Ryan's cup himself

Cathy came in. "What are you staring at, Sarah?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing," Sarah said.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, why?"

"You're acting strange."

"How?"

"I don't know, you just are."

"Oh."

"It's Gary isn't it?"

Sarah perked up at the mention of Gary's name. "What about Gary? Oh, I mean, no way! This doesn't have anything to do with him!"

Cathy went out of the room. "I'll be back to check on you," she said.

"Okay."

Tim walked back in right as Cathy was leaving. "You noticed something strange about her, too?" he asked her.

"Yeah."

It was ten o'clock, and Ryan was still up. Sarah had forgotten to make him got to bed. Cathy walked over to him. "Ryan, go to bed, it's ten o'clock," she said.

"Only Sarah can tell me what to do!" Ryan shouted. 

"Sarah, tell Ryan to go to bed," instructed Cathy.

"Ryan, go to bed," Sarah said dreamily.

"You should go to bed, too, Sarah," instructed Cathy. She led Sarah to her bed.

Meanwhile, Tim was talking to Ben and Damien in their cabin. "At dinner, Ryan told me that Anakin, Jaina, and Jacen got expelled from school because Mara Jade was their teacher," he said.

"Yeah, that's what they said. They're lying," said Damien.

"They're not lying," said Ben. "I can tell when they lie, and they weren't."

"Well if they really got expelled, they have to go to another school. Is there another school on this planet?" asked Damien.

"Not that I know of," Tim responded. 

"Well, then they have to go to another planet."

"Is there a school on Pokémon?" asked Tim.

"Yeah, but it takes two and a half hours to get there from here."

"So be it," said Ben.

"No way! I'll have to get up at two o'clock in the morning!" cried Tim.

"Three," corrected Ben. Tim smacked himself in the head.

"You can always go back to sleep after you drop them off at the train station," said Damien.

"Okay," Tim finally agreed.

He went back to his cabin and decided to go to sleep. He went over to his bed and screamed, "What the…? There's a boy in my bed!"

"Oh, that's Gary," Sarah explained sleepily. "He's sick, so he's sleeping in your bed for now. Go sleep somewhere else, Tim." She rolled over and went back to sleep.

Tim, grumbling, went outside. "At least if I get sick, I'll get my bed back," he said as he settled down on the rocks and went to sleep.


	24. Pokémon School

****

Chapter 24: Pokémon School

Snowy woke Tim the next morning at three o'clock a.m. sharp the next morning. He didn't even bother to eat breakfast. 

Snowy also woke Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin. They were up even before Ben, which was a first. Tim woke Ryan, and the five of them piled into the car and drove into the sleepy town of Gifek. 

Tim dropped them off at the train station. He gave them money for food and tickets then drove away. 

It was a long, but uneventful ride. They each went to the small café on board and bought something to eat. Then they sat down and waited. 

Pokémon was the first stop, so when the train slowed, they got off onto the planet. Pokémon was a regular planet, just like theirs. They spotted Molly waiting for her very late train to Golda. 

"Where's the school, Molly?" asked Jaina. 

"It's in Viridian, the next town over," explained Molly.

"What town is this?" asked Jacen.

"Pallet. This is where Gary lives. I'd show you his house, but I don't want to miss my train. Ms. Jade would kill me because the next one is at ten o'clock."

"Thanks," all four of them said, and they walked away. Pallet was a very small town. The train station was the largest building except for a larger one with a sign that said "Professor Oak's Lab".

They walked on a path until they got to the next small town, Viridian. There was a small school. They went inside. 

"Where's our classroom?" asked Anakin. 

Jaina spotted a list of grades. She walked over to it. "I don't know," she said. "There's no first grade!"

A teacher came over. "You kids should be getting to class," she said.

"We don't know where our classroom is," explained Jacen. 

"How old are you?"

"Six," answered Anakin. 

"You kids are in sixth grade?"

"No, we're six years old!"

The teacher laughed. "Here, our grades correspond with our ages. Your teacher is Mr. Davis in room six. Okay?"

The four nodded. They walked down to room six and sat down. The desks were in rows, six seats in the front, and six seats behind those. They sat down at four consecutive seats in the back.

Mr. Davis walked into his classroom. "Hello, class! My name is Mr. Davis. Now I need to know yours. Let's go around the room and say our names." He pointed to Jaina. "You first."

"Jaina."

"Good. And this must be your twin brother! What's your name?"

"Jacen." Mr. Davis pointed to each student in turn.

"Anakin."

"Ryan."

"Josh." It was the same Josh who was Damien's "best friend".

"Kenny."

"Liz."

"Emily."

"Maria."

"Matt."

"Dina."

"Good," said Mr. Davis. "As long as you behave, there will be no seating chart. Except for Josh, who will come and sit in the front." Josh stuck out his tongue, but went to sit in the front of the class.

"Did everyone have a good summer?" There was a chorus of yes's and no's.

"What?" shouted Anakin. "Do you mean to tell me this is the first day of school?"

Everyone looked at Anakin like he had three heads. Mr. Davis laughed. "I can see you're not from around here. You see, at the end of each summer, we have a Pokémon competition called the Pokémon League." Anakin made a mental note to ask Damien about this later.

Mr. Davis was interrupted by the other kids in the classroom. 

"Did you see that, Maria?" asked Liz. "Gary Oak lost!" 

"That was funny!" 

"He was favored to win!"

"I made a bet with my cousin that he would win, and I had to pay her fifteen dollars!"

"I was at that competition! It was so cool!" 

Suddenly, Josh stood up on his chair and shouted, "Gary Oak sucks! He thinks he's such a big shot just because he's the grandson of Professor Oak! I think he's a loser!"

"I think you're a loser, Josh!" shouted Kenny. "At least Gary completed sixth grade!"

"Gary _is_ famous! He's a really great Pokémon trainer! Better than you, I bet!" yelled Emily.

"That's enough, everyone! Josh, sit down! We can talk about the Pokémon League later. As I was saying, it lasts about a week. When it's over, school starts," Mr. Davis explained. 

"Now, for this year, we will have five rules to follow in class," he continued. He pulled out a huge piece of paper. He read the rules out loud.

"Number one: don't curse. Number two: don't be mean. Number three: don't be late. Number four: come prepared. Number five: follow rules one through four. You also have to follow all other school rules. Any questions?" There weren't.

"As you know," Mr. Davis went on, "we will start learning about Pokémon this year."

"Why?" asked the girl named Dina. "They won't be legal to us until we're ten!"

"Yeah! And we can't be in the Pokémon League until we finish tenth grade!" shouted Matt.

"There is so much to learn about the world of Pokémon, that when you are able to train them, you'll be glad you started so young," said Mr. Davis.

They went on with the lesson. Mr. Davis taught some math and gave them some reading assignments. Being a nice teacher, he gave them no homework.

They got on the train after school, and then Tim picked them up in Gifek. It was a rather uneventful evening.


	25. Levitating Gary

****

Chapter 25: Levitating Gary

The next day, the four of them were late for school. Tim had told Snowy to wake him up at three, but she had heard five-thirty, and didn't wake him up until then. Tim looked at the time and saw that they had already missed the train. He went and woke the others anyway. 

"Guys, wake up!" he called to Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin. 

"I was wondering when you were coming," said Ben. Tim smiled weakly. 

"Time for _school_," Tim said. The new way to wake Anakin was to say the word "school". The three of them hopped out of bed. 

"How are we going to get to school?" asked Jaina sleepily. 

"I don't know," replied Tim. 

"There are other ways to get to Pokémon," said Damien. He had been woken up when Tim came in. 

"Like…" Jaina prompted.

"I don't think I'm going to let you fly to school," said Damien. 

"Oh, please! We have to go to school!" cried Anakin. 

"Well, I guess, but Pidgeot can't take you all…" His voice trailed off. Then he suddenly brightened. "Wait! I still have Molly's Dragonite!" he said.

Dragonite was the large, dragon-like creature Molly had ridden home the first day of school. It was a large, orange, dragon with small, blue, wings. They would have doubted if it could even fly, except they had seen it done before. Tim got Ryan up, then went back to sleep. Damien let Dragonite out of its Pokéball, and they all clamored onto its back.

It flew quickly, but it was not fast enough to help them make it on time. They were a few minutes late. They knocked on the locked door of the classroom. 

Mr. Davis opened the door. "The next time you four are late, you will have to be excused by your guardian." Mr. Davis, having been raised by his four older brothers, knew that not all children lived with their parents. 

The four nodded obediently and sat down at their desks. 

Meanwhile, Sarah was sitting on the green bench in her cabin, staring intently at Gary. He hadn't woken since he had been there, which was good, because Sarah spent almost all day gazing at him. Cathy and Tim were beginning to notice. Whenever either of them came in, she was sitting, facing him, and every time someone said his name, she perked up from her spaced out gaze.

The school-goers came home and set to doing their homework, which they had a little bit of. Anakin couldn't get past answer three, but the others breezed through the work. When the homework table was deserted, Anakin gave up, and read his sister's paper to find the answers. He quickly copied them down in his own words and ran outside to play. 

Cathy was in Sarah's cabin, trying to "sober her up" before Gary woke up, which he was bound to soon. In fact, he was beginning to stir, then sat up his bed.

"Where am I?" he asked. "I don't like the look of this place, ("this place" being a dimly lit cave) I'm getting out of here." He got to his feet, a little wobbly, then went to the door. 

"No! You can't leave!" shouted Sarah.

"Why not?"

"You're…" Sarah though of a quick excuse, "too sick!" she came up with.

"I don't feel sick," said Gary. He walked closer to the door.

"It'll get worse once you leave!" Sarah said. Gary thought about this for a moment. "I guess I could stay a little longer," he said. 

Cathy left the cabin and went to Tim, who was in Lee's cabin. "Tim, Gary's up now," she said simply. 

Lee looked confused, but Tim got mad. "I'll be right back," he said, storming out of the cabin. 

"Don't kill him," said Cathy. 

An evil smirk flickered across Tim's face. "I won't," he said. Cathy said not to kill him, but that didn't mean he couldn't hurt him very, very badly. He walked into the cabin. Sarah was leaving to go riding with Cathy and Damien. "Can I punch you?" Tim asked Gary when the cabin was empty.

"Um…" said Gary, "why?"

"You slept in my bed!" Tim shouted.

"So?"

"It's mine!"

"If it means that much to you, I'll sleep in this bed." Gary went over to Sarah's bed and fell asleep in it. Tim, neglecting Lee, fell asleep in his own bed, a satisfied smile on his face.

Jacen came in to ask Sarah a question, but she wasn't there. What he saw in her bed was a piece of brown hair sticking out from underneath the blanket. He walked over and poked the body. "Sarah! Wake up!" he called.

Gary flung off the covers and scowled at the boy poking him. "You're not Sarah! I guess she's somewhere else. I'll go now," said Jacen.

"Twerp," Gary mumbled. Jacen spun around.

"What'd you call me?" 

"What? How'd you hear that? Well, I don't really care! Go away!"

"I'll go, but it wouldn't be wise to call me anything else. You don't know what might happen to you."

Jacen went, and when he was out of the cave, he heard Gary mumble, "Little jerk!" 

A mean smile, one that was rare on him, flickered across Jacen's face. _I'm going to get even with that attitude problem, _he thought. He held Gary about five inches above his bed. Gary looked down, and saw that he was floating in mid-air. With a yelp, he struggled to get down. After struggling for a while, Jacen dropped Gary, not too gently, back on to his bed. 

Gary jumped to his feet. He walked out of the cave.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Turtle, seeing the angry expression on Gary's face. 

"Someone, or something, made me float!" Gary exclaimed.

"Oh, it was probably Anakin."

Gary, not knowing who or where Anakin was, called, "Anakin!"

Anakin came promptly to Gary. "Anni," he corrected. "What did I do this time?" He was used to being accused of things, which most of the time he did, but he always acted innocent. 

"Did you lift me up back in the cave?" Gary asked. He got ready to punch the little squirt's lights out, when he heard a voice inside his head.

__

Amazingly, Anni didn't do it this time.

"This is the one crime in a while that I've been accused of and haven't done," Anakin said. He ran off, calling, "It was probably Jacen!"

"Jacen!" Gary called. Jacen came over, smiling wickedly. 

"Hey! You're that idiot that thought I was a girl!" Gary exclaimed.

"Yep," said Jacen casually. "I told you not to call me anymore names."

"Whatever," said Gary, walking away and going back to bed.

Gary was soon awake again, and restless, so he went outside. He wanted to leave, but he didn't have any flying Pokémon to ride on. He spotted Damien, coming in early from his ride. Damien stroked his Ponyta's neck and put it back inside the Pokéball. 

Gary's eyes widened. _Maybe he has some flying Pokémon,_ Gary thought. He followed Damien into his cabin.

"Hey," said Gary, "do you have any flying Pokémon? Can I can borrow one?"

"Yeah, but not that you can borrow. I don't even know you. You could be stealing it."

"I promise I'll give it back," Gary pleaded.

Damien shook his head. "Nope. Promises aren't good enough. I already had one Pokémon stolen from me by that idiot, Ash."

"You know Ash? Ash Ketchum?"

"Yeah. You're not a friend of his, are you?

"Heck no! I'm his arch rival!"

"Oh, good. You can borrow this then," said Damien, tossing Gary his Pidgeot. 

"Thanks!" said Gary. He jumped onto the bird's back and flew off. 

"Hey! You're not supposed to leave!" shouted Ember, who had heard Sarah tell him to stay. He flew up and burned Gary and Pidgeot, and they fell to the ground with a crash. People on Pokémon have a very low sensitivity to pain, and so it just felt very hot. Gary got right back up and flew away, and this time Ember didn't stop him. Sarah and Cathy came back just in time to see him flying away. 

The next morning, Tim didn't feel like waking up. Damien had to bring them to school on Dragonite again. But they were late. When Mr. Davis opened the door, he asked for their guardian. 

"Uh," all four of them said.

"You wanted to see me?" Damien asked Mr. Davis. 

Mr. Davis hated Damien. Damien knew the reason. When Damien was in sixth grade, he was about as bad as he was when he first entered the forest. But, he had been an extremely good student. He always aced tests, and knew the answer to every question. He just never felt like raising his hand. The problem was, Mr. Davis's son, Harry, was in that class, too. He was the second smartest kid, but still looked like a fool in front of Damien. Damien could be the best in his class, even when he behaved badly. Harry was a goody-goody and a suck up, but he still didn't always get a perfect. Plus, even then, Damien could probably beat anyone on the planet in a Pokémon battle, provided he didn't have to raise the Pokémon, which he hated doing (and wasn't legal to him then).

"Uh, D-D-D-Damien! I-I though you left!" Mr. Davis backed away from the doorway. 

"Yeah, I left. Why'd you want to see their guardian?"

"T-They're late."

"So?" Damien asked, kicking over the trashcan. "Have a problem with it?" He scowled at Mr. Davis.

"N-N-N-No."

"Fine then. Bye!" Damien walked out of the school. When he got outside, he started to laugh. He laughed all the way back to Golda. 

Mr. Davis picked up the trashcan and the trash spilled around it, and continued the lesson. 

That night, Sarah and Cathy were talking, normally this time. "I wish I could go to school," said Cathy. 

"Yeah, it would be fun to go to a school on a different planet," answered Sarah. 

They argued this issue for a while, weighing the pros and cons, then decided to go, or at least try it out for a while. Plus, it would give Sarah another chance to see the person that both Cathy and Tim now knew she liked; Gary. 


	26. Love Letters

****

Chapter 26: Love Letters

The next day, almost everyone in the forest got up for school. Tim drove Jaina, Jacen, Anakin, and Ryan, to the train station, and Cathy and Sarah rode Candy and Brown Sugar up ahead. They took the train and then walked the rest of the way to Viridian City from the station. 

Jaina told Sarah and Cathy about the grade corresponding with ages on Pokémon, and they found their classroom easily. The grades stopped at ten, because after you were ten, school was optional. There was an "up" class listed, so that's what they decided they were. They were in room eleven and their teacher was Ms. Torres. 

They walked into the classroom. There were only seven other students in the room, and they recognized three of them. There were Gary, Molly (who had decided to go to a much higher grade on her own planet instead of being in Ms. Jade's class, where everyone made fun of her hair and she had no friends), and Misty.

There were four others in the room, who they would get to know later. One was Josh, who had finally moved up to his correct grade because Mr. Davis didn't want to put up with his snide remarks anymore. One was Damien's older sister, Cara. The other two were Misty's best friends, Ash, the boy who "stole" Damien's Charmander, and Brock, the leader of the Pewter City gym.

Cathy and Sarah sat next to each other in the middle of the six-desked last row. Misty and Brock sat next to each other on the right side of the first row. Next to them were Cara and Molly, then Gary. Ash sat behind Misty, and Josh sat a seat away from Sarah.

Ms. Torres walked into the classroom as the bell rang. She had her black hair pulled into a tight ponytail, and she did not look like a kind lady. She passed out some books, the color according to the reading level of the receiver: red for the lowest group (Molly and Josh), blue for the middle group (Brock and Ash), and white for the highest group (Cathy, Sarah, Gary, Cara, and Misty).

"Read the first chapter of your books!" the teacher barked. Sarah opened her book and started reading. The book was really boring. She leaned over to whisper something to Cathy. 

"Hey, Cathy!" she said quietly. 

"This is not time to talk!" Ms. Torres shouted. Sarah leaned back to her desk and started to write a note instead. Gary was already doing so, to his friend Rick. 

Ms. Torres heard the pencils scratching against the papers and looked up. "Mr. Oak," she called, "what are you doing?" She refused to call him Gary. His eyes grew wide and he tried to put the note away in his pocket, but Ms. Torres was too fast. She walked over and snatched the note out of his hands. Gary mumbled something under his breath. 

While reading it, she heard the pencil again. She noticed Sarah writing and snatched the note out of her hands. "Read!" she said, walking back to her desk at the front of the room. She chuckled as she read the notes. 

"How sweet," Ms. Torres said. "I think these should be read out loud to the class…as a pair," she said mischievously. She got up from her desk and walked to the front. Sarah and Gary stared at her in horror. 

"The first one is from Mr. Oak. It says, 'Dear Rick. You're lucky you're not in school. I wish I wasn't. Ms. Torres is a….'" She paused. "Well, I won't say that. Going on, 'The only reason I'm gonna come back tomorrow is that there's this new girl in my class. She's really pretty.'" Ms. Torres laughed. Gary turned a bright shade of red, and put his head down on his desk. Sarah was pretty sure he was talking about her, but she didn't pay attention to anymore of his letter. 

"The other letter is from our new student, Sarah. It reads, 'Hey, Cathy! What's up? I don't like this teacher much. She's a…." Again Ms. Torres paused. "'But there is one good thing about this class. Gary's in it. He's so cute!'"

Gary reddened, if that was possible, at being called cute, though with the conceited way he always acted, you'd think it was common for Gary to have a girlfriend. Sarah turned not much less red than Gary, and hid her head. 

After finishing Sarah's note, Ms. Torres smiled contently and tore up both notes. She walked over to the trashcan and dumped the notes into it. Then she said, "I hope there will be no more notes." She sat down at her desk. Everyone turned toward Gary. 

Josh jumped up on to his desk and shouted in a singsong voice, "Gary's got a girlfriend! Gary's got a girlfriend!" Ash joined in.

"Shut up!" Gary shouted angrily.

Near the end of the day, they were working on a math worksheet. Ms. Torres was checking their progress. She walked up to Sarah's desk and shook her head. "You will stay after school until you finish this," she said. She said the same thing to Gary. They had both been too embarrassed to work. 

When the bell rang, Cathy left and waited outside the door for Sarah, motioning for the four sixth graders to wait, too. 

Ms. Torres smiled wickedly at the two kids sitting in her classroom. "Since you like each other so much, why don't you sit together?" Ms. Torres said, motioning for them to sit together at the center of the front row. They did. 

They found it very hard to get their work done. Gary felt awful at the though of the torment that would come from his next-door neighbor (Ash) that afternoon. Sarah couldn't stop thinking about how she had spoiled her first impression with her classmates. When they finished, it was almost four-thirty. Gary got up, threw his paper into Ms. Torres's hands, and stormed out of the room. Sarah did the same. 

By the time Sarah got out of detention, the train back to Golda was already gone. The next one was due at ten. By the time they got home, it would be twelve-thirty, so they decided just to spend the night at the school.

When five-thirty rolled around, Cathy and Sarah woke up, as usual. They woke up the others, and sent them to wait at their classroom door. The girls did the same. 

Since school started at seven, Ms. Torres always came in around five-thirty to get things ready. She passed the two girls sitting in the hallway. 

"What are you two doing here this early?" she asked suspiciously.

"Our carpool group had a conference this morning with their teacher," Sarah quickly lied. 

"We'll see about that. Who's their teacher?" asked Ms. Torres.

"I don't know," Sarah lied again.

"You must know who your carpool group's teacher is!"

"Mr. Davis," Cathy sighed.

"Thank you," said Ms. Torres, walking down to room six. Luckily, Mr. Davis was there. Anakin, Jaina, and Jacen knew what Sarah had told her teacher, and told Mr. Davis to lie when Ms. Torres asked him if he had a parent conference. Mr. Davis didn't mind much because he didn't particularly like Ms. Torres.

Ms. Torres came up to Mr. Davis in the hall. "Is your parent conference over already?" she asked.

"Yep," answered Mr. Davis, "real nice folks." He went back into his room, smiling broadly behind Ms. Torres's back.

Ms. Torres grumbled under her breath as she walked back to her room and left Cathy and Sarah in the hall. "You can wait until the other students arrive. Besides, today we're getting new seats." Ms. Torres winked at Sarah.

"Bad sign," said Cathy, after Ms. Torres was out of earshot. Sarah nodded and opened her reading book.

The day was a nightmare for Sarah and Gary, but a dream for Ash and Josh. First of all, Ms. Torres put everyone in the blue reading group on the left side, the white in the middle, and the red on the right side. This would have been fine, except that Sarah and Gary were in the same reading group, and Ms. Torres "so kindly" put them together. 

The white book was uninteresting to a boy, and Gary was bored out of his mind. _Hey, if Ms. Torres is going to put us together for the rest of the year, I might as well get to know her, _Gary thought. He took out a sheet of paper and began to write a note to Sarah. 

Again, Ms. Torres heard the scratch of pen on paper and looked up. She saw Gary, stood up, and walked silently to his desk. He didn't notice her until her body blocked the light from his writing. He looked up cautiously. 

"What did we discuss about notes yesterday, Mr. Oak?" asked Ms. Torres. 

"Not to," Gary said calmly. 

"So why are you?"

"Wanted to."

"Do you _want_ to go to the office?"

"Okay, any place is better than here." No one could believe their ears. Gary Oak, talk back to a teacher? Get sent to the principle's office? No way! Josh started to laugh hysterically. 

"Go down to the office, Mr. Oak. Sarah, you're responsible, take him down there. Take your book, Mr. Oak," said Ms. Torres. She was trying very hard to hide the evil smirk that was coming. Tonight, she would call Professor Oak, and tell him why his grandson spent the whole day in the office. 

Sarah walked Gary down the hall. Neither of them said anything the whole way. They were still too embarrassed to speak face to face. When Sarah got back to the classroom, Ms. Torres told her to take the still laughing Josh down to the office, too. 

Then Ms. Torres moved Molly up to the red book and Ash down to the blue book. She was very happy with herself for ruining so many lives today. Ash would be sitting with Josh when he came back. Molly sat with Brock, who couldn't stop staring at her and asking for her phone number, which she refused to tell him. 

The day was almost over, and Ms. Torres was assigning a math worksheet for homework. "Sarah, take these two down to the office for Gary and Josh." It was the first time Ms. Torres had called him Gary. "And don't spend too long down there gawking at your boyfriend," she added. 

Sarah stomped down the hall. She hated Ms. Torres. Now she could see why not too many people on Pokémon came back after tenth grade. But she would still go, because she wanted to learn, and because…well, you can guess the other reason. She delivered the two jailbirds their papers and went back to the classroom.

Ms. Torres was busy after school, so she didn't remember to call Professor Oak. She didn't know that she would the next day.


	27. Study, Study, Study

****

Chapter 27: Study, Study, Study

The next day, Snowy woke Sarah at three. There was really no point in trying to wake Tim, because he wouldn't get up until breakfast was ready, now that Sarah was making it. 

Next, Snowy flew in to wake Cathy, and stopped at the food storage to get food for her own cave. She flew in, put it on the fire, and called, "Wake up, it's time for school." Anakin burst out of bed and ran to the table. Jaina and Jacen followed, but more slowly. 

Meanwhile, Sarah and Cathy were going to get biscuits for their households. Sarah kicked Tim hard to wake him. He immerged from the blankets, rubbing his shoulder where she had kicked him. Sarah put out their mugs full of milk. Ryan and Tim went to the table and sat down. She sat down, too.

Anakin shoved his oatmeal down his throat and ran outside. He was always anxious to get to school. In a little while, the rest of them came out and got in the car or on their horses. They drove to the train station and rode to school.

When they got there, Ryan, Anakin, Jaina, and Jacen went to their classroom, and Cathy and Sarah went to theirs. They were the last ones in the classroom. 

"Now that everyone is here, we can begin our lessons," said Ms. Torres. "If everyone will please get out their homework, I will check it. If you have all the answers filled in, you get five points; if you don't, you will get zero points. No exceptions." She walked over to Ash. "Ashton, do you have your homework?"

"Yes," Ash answered, "here it is." He took out his worksheet and showed it to her.

"Good. Five points. Josh?" 

"I didn't do it," Josh said.

"And why not?"

"I didn't want to."

"Zero points." She went around the room. Almost everyone had his or her homework. When she got to Brock, she picked it up and checked it. "Why didn't you do number 21?" she asked.

"I didn't understand it," Brock answered.

"You should attempt it."

He looked up at her dreamily. "I tried to Ms. Torres, but…" He was interrupted.

"Don't look at me like that! Office, now! Your referral will follow, shortly!" She walked up to her desk and wrote the referral angrily. Brock picked up his books and walked to the door. 

"For once I'm not the first one going to the office," said Josh.

"For once," Molly said. 

"Who wants to take his referral?" asked Ms. Torres.

"I'll take my own," said Brock

"I'll call the office in five minutes to make sure you got there," Ms. Torres said as Brock walked out of the room and to the office. People in the class snickered, and Ms. Torres finished checking homework. 

"Now, we will correct the homework. Ashton, what did you get for number one?"

"Fifteen."

"Good. I know you didn't do it Josh, but will you try to answer number two?"

Josh looked over at Ash's worksheet. "Ash got twenty, sir."

"Sir? Do I look like a male to you?"

"But, I though that's what you're supposed to say, sir!"

"Office!" shouted Ms. Torres. Josh went down the hall to the office, and Ms. Torres sent Sarah with his referral. She then called down to make sure Brock was there and to let them know Josh was coming. The office secretary sighed. Ms. Torres always sent so many people to the office.

Back in the classroom, "Everyone should now read the next chapter in their books," Ms. Torres said. The books, even the white ones, were so easy that everyone in the white group had finished reading them already. Sarah fell asleep. Everyone else just kind of sat around. 

After a while, Ms. Torres said, "Tomorrow, the white and red groups will have a test on their books, chapters one through four for white, and chapters one through three for red. Here is a worksheet. It is extra credit, so you don't have to do it, however, it will help you study for the test, so I highly recommend it." 

Sarah, Cathy, Misty, and Cara started theirs, but Gary put his under his desk and whispered, "I'm not doing this. I read the book. That's all I need to know." Sarah shrugged and was done with the worksheet in minutes. 

After lunch, it was time for math. Ms. Torres gave them a worksheet to work on. By the time they were done with the worksheet and had checked and collected it, it was time for them to go. Sarah and Cathy each brought home her book to study by. 

They got home and, as usual, Tim, Damien, Turtle, and Lee were swimming. Anakin, Jaina, Jacen, and Ryan went to do their homework. They didn't understand part of it, so Sarah was in their cabin helping them.

All of a sudden, a funny, green, boat fell down the waterfall and crashed onto Tim's head. It didn't hurt much, because he was mostly underwater, but it hurt enough that he jumped out of the water. He saw the boat floating in the water. Noticing Tim had gone up, the other three surfaced.

"Hey, Tim, why'd you go up?" Lee asked.

"Something hit me," Tim replied.

"Maybe it was this boat," Turtle suggested.

"Weird looking boat," said Damien.

"Hey, there's something in there," said Turtle, looking inside the boat.

"Someone, you mean," said Tim.

"Is she okay?" asked Lee.

Tim looked into the boat more closely. "Yeah, just asleep," he answered.

Turtle noticed the roped that tied the girl into the boat. "Why is she tied up?"

"How should I know," said Lee.

"I'm good with knots; I'll untie her." Turtle set to work on untying the rope. In a few moments, he had her untied. 

"Let's put her into a bed," Tim suggested.

"Who's?" asked Damien.

"Not Tim's!" everyone said at once. Tim smiled.

"How about Sarah's?" said Lee. "She won't mind." Everyone agreed.

"She looks okay, but let's not take the chance of moving her too much. Let's move the whole boat, and when we get there, we'll take her out and move her into bed," said Turtle. The boat was not heavy, so this seemed reasonable. They moved the boat into Tim's cabin and unloaded the girl into Sarah's bed. Then, being boys, they neglected her (and didn't tell anyone about her, either).


	28. Cheater!

****

Chapter 28: Cheater!

Sarah walked back into her cabin after helping with the homework. She had also visited the food storage and picked up a fish for dinner. She put it on the stove and took out her book to study. Cathy was studying from her worksheet in her own cabin, and decided to have Sarah quiz her on the material. She walked over to the cabin. Sarah was sitting by the fire, rereading chapter four. 

"Hey, Sarah! How's the studying going?" asked Cathy.

"Good. I would ace this test in my sleep," replied Sarah.

"Want to quiz each other?"

"Sure." Just then, Sarah noticed that a corner of the blanket on her bed was hanging down onto the floor. Since Sarah liked things to be neat, she walked over to the bed. 

She screamed as she saw a body in her bed. This scream woke the girl. She began to scream, too.

"Don't hurt me! I didn't do it!" the girl shouted, ducking under the blankets.

"What are you doing in my bed?" yelled Sarah.

"Your bed?" The girl looked down and saw that this bed was not her own. She jumped up. 

"I think I'll be going now," said Cathy. 

"Oh, no you don't," said Sarah, tugging on her arm. Cathy scowled.

"I'm getting out of here," the girl said quietly. There was a barricade of dogs at the door. They growled. "Yikes," the girl said.

"Why are you here?" asked Sarah.

"I don't know. One minute I go to sleep in my own bed, and the next, I wake up in some kind of cave."

Turtle walked by. "Oh, you're awake," he said.

"Yes-wait, how did you know I was asleep?" the girl asked.

"We are the ones who brought you in and untied you," he explained.

"We?" Sarah asked. "Is Tim involved?"

"Yep," answered Turtle.

Sarah glared. "Get him," she said through clenched teeth.

"Tim!" Turtle shouted at the top of his lungs.

"I could have done that!" said Sarah.

"If that was Sarah, I'd know I was be in trouble," said Tim. He got out of the pond and went over to where Turtle was standing. Sarah was glaring at him. "What'd I do?" he asked.

"That's what I'd like to know," said Sarah.

"Huh?" He saw the girl. "Oh! She was tied up in a boat and the boat fell and crashed on my head! So we took her out and put her in your bed."

"Thanks for telling us!" shouted Sarah.

"Sorry," said Tim.

"Why were you on a boat anyway?" asked Cathy.

"I don't know. Wait-was it a green boat?"

"Yes," Turtle and Tim both answered.

"Oh, no," she said. She went out to the door again, but saw the dogs. She wondered how the boys could have gotten by without them growling. 

Turtle saw her looking hesitantly at the dogs. "They may look mean, but they won't hurt you."

The girl walked by the dogs. They growled and Mocha came up and jumped on her. Instead of biting or scratching, the dog started licking her to death. Suddenly, the dog lifted off mysteriously and floated a few feet away. The other dogs backed away.

"There, that should do it," said the girl.

"Don't tell me you're one of those Jedi!" said Sarah.

"No, especially since I don't know what one is," answered the girl.

"Ben will tell you," said Cathy.

Ben could hear them "summoning" him, so he came over. He and the new girl, whose name happened to be Hannah, talked, but they discovered that she wasn't a Jedi, although she did have some magic in her. She couldn't jump high, read minds, or talk into other people's heads, but she could move things by just thinking about it. 

After that long, confusing, talk, Cathy asked if Hannah wanted to ride around in the woods so that she could fill Hannah in on the forest. Hannah said she would go.

"So…" Cathy began, "where are you from?"

"Gifek."

"Oh, so you're a local."

"Yeah, I guess."

"When Tim mentioned you were in a boat, you seemed to recognize it. Do you know how you got here?"

"Well, I have an idea. See, we were putting up decorations for the school dance, but I was really tired. I made sure no one was looking, then I used a bit of magic. Only problem was, a teacher was looking."

"So why would they tie you up?"

"I'm not done yet. Then everyone started calling me an outcast. My parents had a reputation to maintain; they couldn't have an outcast around. I heard them talking about it that night before I fell asleep. I guess they must had decided that their reputation was more important than I was."

"That's terrible!"

"Yeah…well, all I know is, I'm never going back there!"

The conversation continued with Cathy doing most of the talking. She told Hannah all the secrets and rules of the forest; she had a pretty good idea that Hannah was going to be staying a while. Cathy also told her about the people in the forest: who they were, how they got there, and anything else to look out for (such as Damien's bad temper) . Then they rode back to the forest.

When it came time to eat, Hannah ate with Sarah, Tim, and Ryan, but they didn't have extra room for her to sleep. Hannah said, "That's okay, I'll find someplace else." She went outside. She lay down on the "deer rocks" and closed her eyes. 

"I strongly suggest you don't sleep outside," said Ben. "I made that same mistake once…"

"Then where should I sleep?"

Lee came out of his cabin then, and said, "There's only one person in my cabin. Uh, maybe you could stay there for a little."

"Thanks," said Hannah. "Wait…you look familiar."

"I do?"

"I know! You're…no wait, you couldn't be him. He's been dead for…"

"Couldn't be who?"

"Prince Lee. He was a prince about 70 years ago. He committed suicide when he was 12."

"Committed suicide? Where'd you hear that?"

"So you are him?"

"Of course I am! And I didn't commit suicide!"

"Then how did you die?"

"Look at me! Am I dead? My idiot brother pushed me off the platform when we were in a parade right before his coronation!"

"That explains it. Your brother was a greedy king." 

"Anyway, want to come in now?"

"Oh, yeah, sure." Hannah and Lee went into the cabin. Hannah ended up sleeping on the floor, but at least it wasn't rock.

The next day, when it was time to go to school, Snowy went to wake everyone up. Hannah was going to school, too. When Snowy went to wake up Anakin, Jaina, and Jacen, Anakin refused to wake up because he was too tired. No one argued with him, and they left without him.

Sarah, Cathy, and Hannah went to their classroom. Of course, they were the last ones in. Ms. Torres said, "Alright, it's time to have our tests. The blue group will work on their worksheet from yesterday while the rest of you take your test."

Hannah walked up to the teacher and said, "I'm new here."

"What is your name?"

"Hannah."

"Hannah, what reading group are you in?"

"I don't know."

"What grades did you get on your report card in English?"

"'A's'."

"You can start in the lowest group, the blue group, and move up if appropriate. You will read chapters one through four, do this worksheet, and take your test tomorrow," said Ms. Torres, handing Hannah her book and worksheet.

Hannah went and sat behind Brock, because that's where her group was. Brock stared at her dreamily and she moved over to behind Ash.

Everyone else in the room was taking their tests. Gary looked at the first question: "Name one of the main characters' goals." He couldn't remember. Oh, well, he could come back to it. He went on to the next question: "What was a symbol of good in the novel?" What? Symbols? The book never said anything about symbols. Next question: "What was the significance of the grail?" Gary had no idea about the grail. He had finished the book a week ago. He didn't have that good a memory. _What am I going to do?_ He thought. He thought of a plan. _I can look at Sarah's paper. She won't mind. She'll have all the right answers. No one will notice._ He glanced at Sarah's paper little by little, until he had all the answers copied down.

"Is everyone done with the test?" Ms. Torres asked. Everyone nodded, so she collected the papers. She took the papers up to her desk and looked at them. _Hmm…these two look very similar. _She thought. _Oh, and they belong to Sarah and Gary, who sit right next to each other. Sarah must have cheated._

"Sarah and Gary, come up to my desk," Ms. Torres called. Gary looked a little nervous, but thought that if he did, someone might notice and think he cheated. He put on a false innocent look and walked up to her desk.

"Your two papers are very similar. Can either of you explain it?" Both of the kids looked puzzled; Sarah's look was real, Gary's fake. 

"I didn't do it!" said Gary quickly.

"Sarah, why did you copy?" Ms. Torres asked.

"I…I…" Sarah began.

"You will have an after school detention for a week. And you will get a zero on the test, bringing your grade in this class down to an E. Go sit down," Ms. Torres said.

Sarah looked at her in amazement. Then she went to sit down. Gary followed. 

"Gary, why did you copy me?" Sarah whispered.

"I didn't copy you; you copied me!" he whispered back.

"What? You know so well that that's not true! You copied me and framed me!"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I don't need to copy."

Sarah was about to explode when Ms. Torres said, "Oh, Sarah, you have to catch a train after school, so you can't stay after. Wait! I know! You can have in-school suspension! Every day this week you will sit in the office. Starting now."

Sarah glared angrily at Gary, who glared back. She picked up her books and went down to the office.


	29. The First Flood

****

Chapter 29: The First Flood

Every day after that, Sarah had to go to the office when she came in. It wasn't fair. Gary had cheated; he just wouldn't admit it. It was just like him. She should have expected it.

Anakin went to school the next day, but he didn't do anything except sit there. The sixth graders had to take a test, but Anakin took his and sat with his head down on the desk. Later, he complained he didn't feel good.

That day, when they came home, it was a little more windy than usual. There was always a little breeze, but never did the winds get this powerful. Then huge, black, clouds rolled in and it began to pour. It wasn't just a lot of rain; it was as if someone was pouring buckets of water on them. The forest began to flood as it had after the snow. 

Sarah was sitting in her cave when she heard a dripping sound. She looked around and saw a small puddle on the ground. She quickly got a few things and went out of the cave. She went over to the other cave, because it was the second largest home. 

Damien looked confused when she walked in. "What…?"

"Our house is flooding," explained Sarah. She walked in and put her stuff down. All the boys were in here, playing.

Soon, Cathy heard a similar dripping noise. She got out of her cabin as fast as she could, gathering just her bed and Turtle's. She was going to bring them over to the cave where Turtle was to tell him to come to Sarah' cave, but she saw that Sarah was there, meaning her cave was flooded, too. 

After a while, everyone heard the dripping sound again. They had to get out of there. They all floated across the forest to Lee's cabin. It had stopped raining. There was barely enough room for them, so they left their stuff to float outside. 

When it came time to eat, Jacen retrieved a few big fish that Sarah and Cathy cooked over the fire in the middle of the cabin. Then they put out the fire and went to sleep. 

When they were still asleep, the roof of the cabin caved in, splashing water over everyone except Ryan, who was sleeping in a bathtub outside, and Anakin, who was sleeping on a floating chair. 

They couldn't stay in Lee's cabin anymore. Tim swam over to his cabin to get something, but when he went inside, it was dry. There was only a small puddle on the floor, and no dripping. What had happened was that Sarah had heard water dripping off the cave door. It had created a puddle.

They all settled themselves in Sarah's cabin. Ryan cleaned up the water. Everyone else set up beds for themselves. Sarah shared Tim's bed (much to his disgust), Ryan had his own bed, Lee had Sarah's bed, Hannah and Damien had folding chairs, Cathy and Turtle had their own beds, Ben slept on the floor, Jacen slept on a basket of food, Jaina slept on four chairs pulled together, and Anakin slept on the bench near the fire. No one could leave the forest. 

Everyone depended on Ryan to do their chores for them. He woke up first the next morning, rowed out to the food storage, and picked up a large hunk of meat. He brought it back to his cabin and put it on the fire. Then he got some milk from the goat and out it in a pitcher on the table. 

Cathy woke up. "What are you doing, Ryan?"

"Cooking," Ryan replied.

People began to wake up after that. Soon, everyone was awake except Anakin. 

"Am I the only one who's not sick?" asked Ryan. Everyone answered yes.

"I'm not," came a sleepy voice from the bench. Ryan was the only one who heard. 

"What?" Ryan asked.

"I'm not sick," answered Anakin.

"Oh," said Ryan. "Two people aren't sick. Anni's not sick."

Anakin woke up with a jolt. "What?" he asked.

"You're not sick."

"Ryan! Why'd you tell them all!" Anakin picked up Ryan and flung him out the door. He landed in the water. Pikablu brought him back in. Ryan stumbled into bed and fell asleep.

No one seemed to notice. They had all fallen back asleep. Damien and Cathy were still half-awake, but didn't care enough to do anything about it. 

Anakin was mad. Ryan had told everyone his secret and now he would have to do work. Well, first, he would mess up Ryan's work. He took the meat on the stove and threw it to the dogs huddled by the door. They ate it hungrily. Then Anakin poured the pitcher of milk all over the floor. He pushed some chairs over. 

Togepi was sitting on the table. It chattered in its own language at Anakin. "Shut up," said Anakin, pushing it to the floor with his arm and kicking the poor egg across the room.

Damien sat up in his "bed." Togepi was lying on the floor, crying. Anakin threw the pitcher at it to try to get it to shut up, but missed. Damien got up and sneaked carefully across the room. 

Anakin didn't hear Damien sneaking up on him. Damien grabbed him before he could run. "Why did you do that?"

"What?"

"Don't play that game with me. You know what you did. Why'd you kick Togepi?"

"He was in my way."

"Should I kick you if you're in the way?"

"No."

"Then you shouldn't kick it. It's not your property to destroy." 

Anakin struggled, and since Damien was not at full strength, he managed to get loose. Damien was fast, though, and grabbed his wrist. Anakin twisted and squirmed, but Damien was holding really tight. He pulled Anakin closer to him to get his grip again, but Anakin pulled his arm and twisted it. There was a loud crack and Anakin stopped struggling immediately. Damien let him go and he fell to the floor, holding his wrist.

Cathy had seen the whole thing. She sat up in bed and glared at Damien. "What did you do that for?" she asked angrily. 

"He deserved it. He kicked Togepi."

"That's no reason to hurt him."

"What I do is none of your business." 

"You shouldn't have done that." 

"And what are you gonna do about it?" 

"Well, I think you should at least apologize."

"I'd rather leave then apologize!"

"Then go."

"Fine, I will!" Damien grabbed Togepi off the floor, picked up his backpack and stormed out of the forest. He could walk across easily, now that the water was frozen.


	30. Mike's Return

****

Chapter 30: Mike's Return

Cathy rushed up to Anakin, who was lying on the floor of the cave. 

"Are you okay?" she asked. He shook his head. "Let's take you up to the hospital," suggested Cathy. She hooked up Brown Sugar to their new sleigh (that everyone had helped make) and helped Anakin inside. She climbed on Brown Sugar and led him through the trees into Gifek. 

The small clinic Cathy had known had been gone for a long while now, and it had been replaced by a hospital. Cathy and Anakin rode up to the building and went inside. 

"How can I help you?" asked a fat, old, lady at the front desk. 

"My friend hurt his arm."

"Follow me," said the lady, getting up and walking down a long hallway. She led them into a room. "Sit up here," she instructed to Anakin. Anakin sat on the long counter. "The doctor will be here shortly," said the lady, leaving the room and shutting the door behind her.

Cathy took a seat next to the wall of the room. The doctor came in. He was old, too old to still be working. 

"Hello! I'm Doctor Howe! What seems to be the trouble?" said the old doctor, kindly.

"Well, my friend hurt his arm."

"How did this happen?" asked Dr. Howe, checking out Anakin's arm. 

"Uh…" Cathy paused. She didn't want to say that Damien had hurt him, because then they'd be after him, and maybe come to inspect the forest. Everyone in the forest's biggest fear was that they'd be caught one day and not allowed to live there anymore. "He fell," she answered. This wasn't entirely false. Anakin had fallen when Damien had let go, hadn't he?

"I see," said Dr. Howe, as though he didn't think Cathy was being completely truthful. "We'll have to take an x-ray." He led Anakin and Cathy into another room. He took an x-ray of Anakin's arm. 

They went back into the other room and Dr. Howe put the pictures up on a light board. "His arm is fractured. It's a small break, though. See right there?" He showed Cathy a picture of the small break in Anakin's bone. "It should only take a few weeks to heal. We'll put a cast on it."

Cathy read a magazine in the lobby while Anakin was getting his cast on. It didn't take long. 

"Now, I'll need your name and address to bill you," said Dr. Howe.

"Cathy."

"Last name?"

"Uh…" Cathy couldn't think about her last name because she was so worried about having to give an address. She also wondered if they had any money.

Dr. Howe stared at Cathy. "You look like someone I used to know… but they'd be around my age by now."

Cathy stared at the old man. No wonder he had looked familiar. "Mike?"

Dr. Howe nodded slowly and said. "You couldn't be Cathy…I knew I shouldn't have stayed at work so long; I'm starting to hallucinate!" 

"No, Mike, it's really me."

"But, but, you'd be my age. You still look twelve!"

"Uh, Mike, there are some things I need to fill you in on," Cathy started. 

Mike rushed out of the room and back to the lobby where the fat lady stood at the desk. "Ms. Sim, I'm leaving now. I'll see you tomorrow. Tell everyone I'm off duty."

Ms. Sim looked at him strangely but then said, "Good bye, doctor," and went back to what she was doing.

Mike rushed outside into the parking lot. He walked over to a black convertible and motioned for Cathy and Anakin can get in. While they rode back, Cathy told him about the aging problems in the forest.

"What did you do after you were adopted?" asked Cathy.

"Well, my father, Dr. Howe, started this hospital when it got too crowded around our small clinic. I was around twenty then, and going to medical school. Then we got some government funding from King Humperdink to build a hospital. You know, the population of Golda is really growing. Anyway, shortly after the hospital was completed, my father died. Then the hospital was handed over to me. I now own it. I'm pretty old, as you can see, but I have no heirs to give the hospital over to since I never married. Plus, I love my job and being a doctor. One day, I'll probably give the hospital over to a hard working, young doctor who will enjoy it as much as I did."

Cathy then started talking about the other strange things that had gone on while they were in the forest. She told about the Hunter, the Jedi, Mara Jade, winter, and the flood. She also told the real story about how Anakin had broken his arm, which caused her to explain all the newcomers in the forest.

"Erin, Lauren," came a voice from downstairs, "Time to clean up! Erin's mom will be here any minute!"

"No! It can't be time yet!" Lauren looked at the clock. It was almost five o'clock.

"I guess we have to clean up," said Erin, as she picked up the pond and started to take the trees apart. Lauren started to separate her things from Erin's. The doorbell rang.

"Oh, no!" Lauren said. She shoved the last remaining items into Erin's box, and Erin closed it tightly. She slipped on her shoes and ran downstairs.

"Bye, Erin!" Lauren called as Erin walked out the door. "Next time, we'll play at your house!" Erin got in the car and drove away. Lauren went upstairs to finish cleaning up her Playmobil.


	31. The Epilogue

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Epilogue

So ends the written part of this story. But the one in my and Erin's memories doesn't even close to end here. Plus, there are a lot of events left out of the written, and some events added that never actually happened. Yes…I do mean actually. More on that later. Here's what happens after the written story, The Enchanted Forest, is finished.

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Near Future

Damien stays away for a while after Cathy "kicks him out". They still see him, however, because he has apparently gone back to his home planet and is going to school there. As you can imagine, Cathy's not too happy about this. Then, after the incident with the big, fluffy, purple, box, (lol-for info. on this e-mail me) Damien moves back into the forest.

Soon after, Ben…or should I say Anni, gets arrested for the murder of five thousand something people. Turns out he's not really Ben, he's just Anakin Skywalker pretending to be Ben. The real Ben died years ago, the first time he left the forest. He was killed by Darth Vader (aka The First Anakin). The stuff about the projection dying is real, however. Darth Vader used this method when Luke supposedly killed him.

Speaking of Luke, he and Mara Jade got married. Their wedding went smoothly, and everyone in the forest attended (including Togepi, who caused some problems). Mara still teaches at the school in Gifek. She is not evil anymore, but the children continued to go to the Pokémon school anyway. Luke is, of course, still a Jedi Knight, and now trains his nephews and niece in Ben's place.

There is sudden a spark between Damien and Sarah. They start talking more and go riding in the woods together. Cathy is extremely jealous, of course. This is where we loose Erin. :( Sorry! 

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Future

Eventually, the relationship gets so serious (not that serious, you sick-minded folks out there) they want to grow up and get out. Two years have passed (but they have stayed the same age, of course).

Only Tim, Ryan, Damien, Sarah, Turtle, and Cathy stay together. Lee and Hannah both go back to Gifek. (This part of their lives if very vague.) Since Ben is no longer there to take care of them, Anni, Jacen, and Jaina move back in with their parents (Also vague).

At first, the group moves in with Damien's family, but it's way too crowded. Gary hears about this problem and his grandfather lets them use a house he owns in Cerulean city. They use the money from the bank account on Golda to buy other necessities. 

Everyone goes to high school, except Ryan, who is still at Viridian School. Even Turtle and Tim go to school. The three boys join the high school soccer team, and Sarah takes a medical class. They make new friends and new enemies. They continue to keep in touch with the others from the forest and Mike.

****

Far Future

For information about the far future, please read some of my original stories on FictionPress.com 

Now I have some extra, random, things to say, so I'll call this section the…

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Author's Note

My name is Lauren. I am fifteen and in the tenth grade. I am in high school. I live in Maryland, in the US. But you don't really care about me. You want to know what the big secret of the story is. Don't you? I'm going to write the last few paragraphs again, just in case you forgot about them. Then I'll explain everything you're confused about.

"Erin, Lauren," came a voice from downstairs, "Time to clean up! Erin's mom will be here any minute!"

"No! It can't be time yet!" Lauren looked at the clock. It was almost five o'clock.

"I guess we have to clean up," said Erin, as she picked up the pond and started to take the trees apart. Lauren started to separate her things from Erin's. The doorbell rang.

"Oh, no!" Lauren said. She shoved the last remaining items into Erin's box, and Erin closed it tightly. She slipped on her shoes and ran downstairs.

"Bye, Erin!" Lauren called as Erin walked out the door. "Next time, we'll play at your house!" Erin got in the car and drove away. Lauren went upstairs to finish cleaning up her Playmobil.

As you could have guess, the Lauren in the end of the story is me. Erin (aka M. Skywalker) is my friend, Erin (no duh). We play Playmobil a lot, and we use the same story every time. This is the story we use. Because of this, I started to write the story about what we played. I didn't decide to do this until after we were well into the story, so that's why the beginning chapters are so vague and the other chapters are more detailed. Let me tell you that we are well passed this point now, but I've stopped writing. In fact, Mara and Luke's wedding already happened. Most of the other parts about the Future and Far Future are made up by me and only me. If Erin had her say, Luke and Mara would never even have gotten married. I highly doubt that she would ever let Damien and Sarah get married. Cathy probably wouldn't be jealous either. This is just the way I worked things. When we play, Cathy is Erin's character, so I pretty much neglect her in her "afterlife." Turtle, Jacen, Jaina, and Ben are also Erin's characters. I don't really like them as much as others. Sorry again Erin! 

Well, that's about all I can say except for some disclaimers and copyright info. All Star Wars, Pokémon, and Princess Bride characters are made up by whoever made them up, NOT ME. As for the others…don't use them because they are copyrighted by me and Erin! 

Hope you liked the story. Please take the time to review, and if you leave your email address, I will try to get back to you. Thanks for reading!

~*Kristen Riddle*~

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